The purpose of a myth is not that it’s true. The human mind thinks in terms of stories, and the purpose of a myth is to help us orient our lives around whatever we believe is truly important. One of the core myths in my life is the idea that every human being is a worker in a factory that produces the complex beauty of life. We all stand along a conveyor belt and receive transmissions from past generations. As a worker in this factory, we each have two jobs: to appreciate everything beautiful that has been passed on to us, and to transform the suffering of past generations. If we can transform even a little bit of this ancestral suffering, we’ll leave the world better than we found it, which (for me) is the highest measure of a human life.

Desmond, Tim. How to Stay Human in a F*cked-Up World (p. 112). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.