What else? What next?

And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum 1, © Justin James King

Excerpted from Letters to Olga, by Václav Havel, a Czech playwright, essayist, and politician.

In short, the more wonderful the moment, the more clearly the telltale question arises: And then what? What more? What else? What next?. . . It is, I would say, an experience of the limits of the finite; you have approached the outermost limits of the meaning that your finite, worldly existence can offer you, and for this very reason, you are suddenly given a glimpse into the abyss of the infinite, of uncertainty, of mystery. There is simply nowhere else to go -- except into emptiness, into the abyss itself. . .

This vague anxiety, this breath of infinite nonfulfillment emanating from an experience of the greatest fulfillment, this sensation of terrifying incomprehensibility that blooms in a moment of firmest comprehension, can always be brushed aside like a bothersome piece of fluff. You may wait till the cloud temporarily covering the sun passes by and go on living in peace and delight without asking troublesome questions. But you may also do the opposite: forget about all the "spontaneous meaningfulness" that gave you such intense pleasure, forget about the answer given before the question was posed, and stop precisely at the point where the cold air from the abyss struck you most powerfully -- when you felt most intensely that in fact you have nothing, know nothing, and, worst of all, do not even know what you want -- and bravely confront the question that comes to mind in such moments. That is, the genuine, profound, and essentially metaphysical question of the meaning of life.