To graduate from the school at fifth form you had to join a club or society. When you reached sixth-form you had to be involved in a 'ministry', which meant doing voluntary service at an old age home, orphanage, almshouse, shelter, inner-city primary school et al . This gave us all a sense of purpose and community, humanitarianism, philanthropy and egalitarianism. It reminds me of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and his philosophy of 'dasein', 'being there, in-the-world'.

Heidegger, an existentialist, believed that existence in the world was/is a negative experience. Anxiety, stress, confusion, doubt and all these negatives, the philosophy says, characterise our lives as humans in this world. But, unlike other existentialists like Sartre and Camus, Heidegger believed one can find purpose in 'participation'. His idea of parti-cipation, though, is not quite the same as ours. By participation, he meant being aware of our "thrownness on to death" (we are thrown into the world without choice as to who we are and we are on a progression to death, like it or not). The only way then to make meaning of life is to participate actively and consciously in the experience of existence.

¶ 1:14 PM