If there is a driving force in humanity beyond human instinct, it is the need to understand why we are here.

Some people swear on ancients texts. Some people look to the stars. Others go out into the world and search for answers. But whether you believe in God or a cosmic accident that exploded the Universe into being, we’re all trying to answer the same question.

“Does my life have meaning?”

If we look merely to science, the answer is a resounding “no”. Eventually, the works of Homer, Mozart and Steve Martin will be forgotten. So what hope do the rest of us have?

But wait! There’s good news. Time is meaningless in the macro. The universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, regardless of how you think it got there. 1,000 years counts about as much as 1/1,000,000,000,000 of a second.

What that means is the micro is all that we have and all that really matters. If nothing we do ultimately matters, then that means that everything we do matters… because this is all we will ever have.

What we put out into the world makes a difference. Because even if everything you do feels meaningless, it affects things and people in ways you don’t perceive.

I bring this up, because I heard a quote today.

“I don't know how much value I have in this universe, but I do know that I've made a few people happier than they would have been without me, and as long as I know that, I'm as rich as I ever need to be.”

Robin Williams said that. A man who ended up taking his own life. Maybe life was too much for him. Or maybe he forgot the effect he had on it.

Robin Williams was one of my earliest idols. I forget that sometimes, but he had a huge effect on me.

It’s funny to think about sometimes. In the long list of things I wanted to be… really all I ever wanted to do was entertain people. More broadly, I wanted to make people happy.

I make a lot of jokes, even if most of them only land with me. I think really laughter is one of the greatest things there is. I would rank it higher than sex and just below love.

I don’t know if there is anything than unites us and humanizes us more than laughter.

As much as I’ve done wrong in this long life, I hope I’ve spread more laughter.

There are people in this world that I have loved and lost. Maybe some of them hate me. Maybe they have good reasons.

Whoever you are, I hope you’ve given more than you’ve taken. I hope you’ve lived a good life and leave the world a little better than you found it. And if our paths have crossed, I hope I made you laugh at least once. Or just showed you some kindness.

And if there is a God out there, I hope I’ve entertained him as well.