Excellence Reporter: Tracy, what is the meaning of life?

Tracy Silverman: To me, there is no meaning at all other than whatever subjective meaning we give our lives. If you seek out pleasure, then the meaning of life is to seek pleasure. If you like to work hard and help others, than that is the meaning of your life.

The biological imperative to live, the survival instinct, is hard-wired into our beings—those creatures without it did not stand the evolutionary test of time. I guess the meaning of life = the survival instinct + our personality.

I would say the meaning of my life is to appreciate nature and art and to try to add new art to the world in the hopes that it may inspire others to appreciate as well. I think that the ability to appreciate things — and to be aware of that appreciation — may be one of the highest evolutionary achievements of our species.

***

~Tracy Silverman is an American violinist, composer, and producer. Lauded by BBC Radio as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”. A long-standing advocate for music education, Silverman is an indemand clinician and on faculty at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.
www.TracySilverman.com

Copyright © 2016 Excellence Reporter