The words of the Teacher,
son of David, king in Jerusalem:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

– Ecclesiastes 1:1-7

Solomon’s class was a philosophy class.  He begins his lecture with the rather attention getting statement of the meaninglessness of everything so that the student asks the question – What is meaningful?

On the daily hamster wheel of life, weeks folding in and out and fading into oblivion like an endless accordion, Sun going round and round (or rather, Earth going round and round), minutes escaping us one by one, it’s easy to get lost in the rhythm and monotony, and more importantly, to fail to get perspective on the whole affair.  What is the meaning of life?  What makes life meaningful?  What is meaningful?