Regarding the previous piece about possibilities, as Heraclitus pointed out way back when, life process consists of nonstop change (even in things that seem permanent like works of art and architecture–certainly whatever infrastructure, people, and Nature). And so the myriad possibilities are themselves transitory or ephemeral (which is why Joseph Campbell was so adamant about responding to The Call). What is best (as previously discussed) is chosen by the individual. More on this by the eminent Viktor Frankl from his classic Man’s Search for Meaning:
“The only transitory aspects of life are the potentialities; but the moment they are actualized, they are rendered realities; they are saved and delivered into the past, wherein they are rescued and preserved from transitoriness. For in the past, nothing is irrecoverably lost but everything irrevocably stored.”
“Everything hinges upon our realizing the essentially transitory possibilities.”
“Man constantly makes his choice concerning of present potentialities; which of these will be condemned to nonbeing and which will be actualized? Which choice will be made an actuality once and forever, an immortal ‘footprint in the sands of time’? At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.”
Evidence that I was here? Many possible answers. But in terms of existentially defining oneself and making meaning or finding purpose, Frankl’s words offer one key approach and central, underlying truth.