I still remember part of the speech during the Council's investiture. The part from Alice in Wonderland.

If you don't remember, fear not! I have the book and I shall quote it directly.

***

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinning a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a great deal on where you want to get to.' said the Cat.

'I don't care much where - ' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

' - so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'


***

It does seem that one needs a goal to know what to do. Perhaps, when you ask yourself, "What should I do now?" It really depends on what you want to achieve. And if you believe in a mechanistic universe, "want" doesn't really make sense. How can this blob of interacting charged particles "want" something? Yet it seems like it does. Strange.

What if I take it that if a system tends towards a certain condition, I say that it "wants" that condition? So if a person tends to a state of happiness, then he wants to be happy? If an atom tends to form an octet configuration, it "wants" to form an octet configuration? If unlike poles attract each other, they "want" to be together?

Hmm wait, don't they all obey the second law of thermodynamics?

So, if we all tend towards where we want to get to, why do I still get lost, and wonder what everything is for? Why am I searching for what I really want, even though it is just supposed I want to do now?

Perhaps it's because what I want to do now may make it difficult for me to do something else later.