When you build your life around passion(s), you tend to be too busy to notice that there's some meaninglessness running in the background. In other words, it stops being a problem. What if you don't have passions other than a passion for drinking? In that case, you might have a problem.

Do we put "passion" in a different category from distraction?

Absolutely. Distraction is the only way as I see it.

Sorry, I mean in the same category.

Distraction is the only way as I see it. — enqramot

Do you see passion as a kind of distraction? Or is it something different?

Read your post too quickly.

So, yeah, it's a kind of distraction.

Gotcha

1. What causes a turn from distraction to facing the meaninglessness of human existence?

2. How do you personally deal with it? — Tate

I've rarely thought that existence is meaningless in the sense that this idea would be unsettling. Meaning is found in daily living, relationships, caring for others and hobbies. I can't imagine that it is any different for people who believe in god/s. I've certainly met numerous suicidal Christians, without any purpose and this was not owing to a lack of faith.

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I've rarely thought that existence is meaningless in the sense that this idea would be unsettling. Meaning is found in daily living, relationships, caring for others and hobbies. I can't imagine that it is any different for people who believe in god/s. I've certainly met numerous suicidal Christians, without any purpose and this was not owing to a lack of faith. — Tom Storm

Well, aside from subjective meanings any of us is free to derive, there may be a general purpose for which the whole system was put in place, and which would be quite difficult to guess.

there may be a general purpose for which the whole system was put in place, — enqramot

Meaning what? Hinduism; Islam; Theosophy; Transcendental Idealism; UFO's; Simulation Theory??

A

Meaning what? Hinduism; Islam; Theosophy; Transcendental Idealism; UFO's; Simulation Theory?? — Tom Storm

Any theory will do, they're just theories, after all, just educated guesses.

For me the time to believe something is when there is good evidence for it. So it makes no real difference to the OP's question to me.

And some of them, pretty uneducated or downright dodgy.

For me the time to believe something is when there is good evidence for it. So it makes no real difference to the OP's question to me. — Tom Storm

These things are so complex that the very idea of humans coming up with good evidence seems rather unrealistic.

Say, God, for example. What would be good evidence. Therefore I don't have 'believe' in my vocabulary. I just have working hipotheses.

*hypo

Actually, it seems distraction is precisely what makes existence *seem* meaningless. — ArielAssante

Could you expand?

1. What causes a turn from distraction to facing the meaninglessness of human existence? — Tate

What is meaningless about human existence? Maybe it's the conception of meaninglessness that is the distraction from just getting on with life and creating your own purposes and meanings.

What is meaningless about human existence? Maybe it's the conception of meaninglessness that is the distraction from just getting on with life and creating your own purposes and meanings. — Harry Hindu

Agree, good point.

What is meaningless about human existence? — Harry Hindu

That it's all for nothing.

What is meaningless about human existence? Maybe it's the conception of meaninglessness that is the distraction from just getting on with life and creating your own purposes and meanings. — Harry Hindu

:fire:

"The meaninglessness of life" is also meaningless.

What is meaningless about human existence?
— Harry Hindu

That it's all for nothing. — Tate

What is all for nothing? What does that even mean?

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”(C)

3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?(D)
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.(E)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.(F)
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.(G)
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,(H)
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;(I)
there is nothing new under the sun.

None of you are fooling me

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Re the OP :

Once a month, I try to leave my mom's basement and meet people.

Self awareness is sometimes accompanied by pain, physically or emotionally. Maybe the first step is to deal with those things?

What is meaningless about human existence?
— Harry Hindu

That it's all for nothing. — Tate

How is human existence "all for nothing"? My wife and children's and friends' existence is not all for nothing. Their existence everything to me, and if one's existence is everything to just one, then their existence cannot be all for nothing.

How is human existence "all for nothing"? My wife and children's and friends' existence is not all for nothing. Their existence everything to me, and if one's existence is everything to just one, then their existence cannot be all for nothing. — Harry Hindu

"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," as the Bard said.