In that context, it means nothing. However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness.
> We're on a rock flying through space.
I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. Anyway, don't mind me. It has been raining all week and I think it's affecting my mood.
> However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness.
Right. This just happens to coincide with a shift in my life, where all the old contexts from my youth are meaningless, and I need to find new contexts.
So if there is no such thing as contributing, then the contributing you used to do only mattered because of a context you (or I) constructed to find important.
I don't think the right answer is to say, "Nothing is important." I think the right answer is to relentlessly seek for a new context to find important, to give meaning to our own life.
If you zoom out to the time and space scales of the universe there is no meaning to be found. Humanity is merely a short lived aberration. None of that is relevant to our human lives on a daily basis. And this nihilistic appeal otherwise is just missing the point. It's an easy way out for people who'd rather not investigate the meaning of life more deeply.
> We're on a rock flying through space.
I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. Anyway, don't mind me. It has been raining all week and I think it's affecting my mood.