Reply #37: I was going to say "to learn lessons"

[renate]

... but I like your answer--"it's for each person to choose"--a lot. I'd never thought of it that way. I like to learn from my experiences here, and to think of my experiences as learning opportunities. But there's something to be said for the idea of just going along for the ride, just having fun, or learning, or both, or neither. After all--what do I know? All I know is that I can't possibly comprehend the full picture and it would be fairly arrogant of me to suppose that I could. So I like your "it's for each person" viewpoint.

Also, I love this poem, "Late Fragment," by Raymond Carver (I don't know which point of view is expressed here, the learning one or the going-along one, or maybe something completely different):

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.