Long ago, when the Internet was new (in the early 1990s), I set up a form-mail on my website to ask “What is the most interesting question in your life, and when do you expect to get an answer to that question?” For me, the broad answer was easy: “How does it work?” is the most interesting question. Answering “How does it work?” (… a car, a garden, a brain, a culture …) keeps me young and curious, never bored. However, most people who filled in the form asked this question: “Why am I here?”. They seemed to mean “Why was I born”, and they weren’t expecting an answer like “.. because mum and dad had it off one Saturday night”. They wanted some god sitting on a thunder cloud to say that they were chosen for a holy mission, and were therefore special. To me that’s a pretty silly story, but I suppose if you believe it, then you have a reason to get out of bed every day. Maybe that is all that matters. Or to be honest, maybe some “Why” questions just don’t have an answer (so why waste your short life asking?).
Still not satisfied? OK, here is a big picture answer, as good as any: I know why I am here. Like you I am a caretaker gifted with a little intelligence to use wisely, a humble warden for a small planet we call Earth, and all the living things upon it. The role I may perform badly. I am often selfish, often partisan, but when the dust clears I know where the ground is under my feet. I am not a man from Alpha Centauri, and I am not a man from some concrete apartment block in some nameless city of an invented country. I am a man from Earth, and Earth is always waiting for my care.