The Meaning of Life
Harry deals in California real estate and has a good life. One day at lunch he looks around him at the quiet patio and the flowering bougainvillea, then at his partner, Mike. “Mike,” he says, “do you know what the meaning of life is?” Mike says no and changes the subject.
For the next few months Harry worries about the meaning of life. Finally he tells Mike he’s going to quit real estate to search until he finds the answer. Mike tries to talk him out of it, but Harry has made up his mind. He puts his affairs in order and disappears from the face of the earth.
Years later, Mike is eating lunch at the same restaurant and a bum puts a hand on his shoulder and says in a wheezy voice, “Mike, it’s me, Harry!” Harry is a scarecrow, one eye missing, teeth gone, a filthy mess. Mike wants to shake him off, but Harry sticks to him like glue. Harry says, “It’s been a long trip, I did time in jail, I got all kinds of diseases, I almost died in Tibet, I was robbed and beaten up … but I found the meaning of life!”
Mike looks him over and figures he has to play along to get rid of him. So he says, “Okay, what’s the meaning of life?” Harry stares deep into Mike’s eyes and says, “It’s the hole in a bagel.”
Mike doesn’t appreciate the answer, so he tells Harry that the meaning of life can’t be the hole in a bagel.
Harry slowly takes his hand off Mike’s shoulder and gets an amazed look on his face. He says to Mike, “Aha! So life’s not the hole in a bagel!” … And he walks out of the patio.
-excerpt from Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life
Allan Kaprow, 1990
