To answer the larger question -- whether a grand purpose in life is necessary for having a good life -- I'd say that society benefits when there's variety in what people see as their life purpose. People with small ambitions, quiet lives, or just a knack for fun, bring needed balance to people with grand ambitions. Someone needs to tend the gardens and bake cookies with the kids. The world definitely needs people who tend to the world-changing details of raising a child well, as badly as it needs its global peacemakers. What matters, I think, is that you bring more to the world than you take away. That's a good life. The details are up to you.---Carolyn Hax


...and we all grow and benefit from really great music for the soundtracks of our lives.--EMR