Camus is one of my favorite thinkers. I have always leaned toward nihilism and struggled to find meaning in anything. I thought it was just me until I found Camus's writings, or more accurately, other people's interpretations of Camus's writings because at first read Camus is nearly impenetrable.

Many people write about philosophy and spiritual matters, and many people come to embrace a certain Truth they've found. Many of those people embrace it with false certainty and faith that fills them with righteousness. They are all full of shit.

I particularly liked Camus's analogy of the warrior with a sword storming an entrenched ememy with machine-gun nests. The idea that he could succeed is absurd. Brave perhaps, but absurdly stupid and hopeless. That's how he views the quest for Truth and meaning in life. When I contemplated that analogy, I began to see the deeper truth he points to, and I see my struggle with finding any meaning is actually the point -- there is no meaning, but we should carry on anyway.

Clint Eastwood made a movie called the Eiger Sanction. In one scene the climbers are headed back down the mountain before a storm, and it looks hopeless. One of the characters is asked if he thinks they will make it. He says "No, but we will continue on valiantly." That is Camus. That is the struggle for meaning in life. We continue to search for it knowing it's a Quixotic quest and we will never finally achieve our goal. In fact, if we ever do believe we've found it, we actually become lost in delusion.