Purpose – an aim, an intention or practical use of an object. A plan or a goal?

Purpose. I think about it a lot. I always have. When I first left school I went to University to study Architecture because it felt like it had more purpose than Art. I truly hated it and left in the first term. I have often thought about ‘alternative’ lifestyles and trying to step outside the consumer-led world that we live in yet have only ever come up with plans that require me to either a) make a lot of money to begin with and then ‘withdraw’ from that world or b) make art objects, beautiful things or unique goods and sell them to people who are working hard to earn enough money to buy those things – so essentially being reliant on consuming. This has always troubled me. 

This week I went to an open art exhibition and there were many beautiful images, technically proficient, pleasant and which almost certainly would look great on the wall of somebody’s home. As is often the case for me I was left with a tinge of jealousy about how technically great many of these pieces were, in some cases how clever they were, yet also I felt a tinge of sadness because I struggled to find the purpose in much of the artwork beyond being beautiful, beyond being clever, beyond being technically proficient. What was the meaning? Where was the political message? Where was the challenge to me as the viewer? And then I took a moment to pause and realised not everything has to have meaning and purpose beyond what it is. It is ok to simply ‘be’ nice to look at, to be something to marvel at because it is so good. 

And in life this is true too. Not everything has to be done for a reason, we don’t always have to be doing something or going places – we have been conditioned to think that simply ‘being’ is lazy, wasteful and unproductive.  

And I worry that many Voluntary and Community groups are currently driven by funders and commissioners to find purpose where there is none beyond simply being – a group that meets in the community hall might come together around a shared interest but it doesn’t mean that is its only purpose, or that everybody goes to it goes for the same reason. Some may go for company, some may go as an excuse to walk somewhere, some may go to develop their technical skills, some may go because they feel useful when they put the chairs away at the end of the night. So if we make everything about ‘health outcomes’ or badge things as ‘creative health’ or ‘men’s mental health’ do we actually, by trying to be more purposeful, end up making things less accessible and less open. I worry that we may lose the spaces where people can go to just ‘be’ and where people discover each other and joy of life and community for no reason other than that is simply life.