this fleeting man

"Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble."

This would be a great opening sentence for a great novel, a chorus for a song, or opening line in a poem.

In fact, it comes from the mouth of Job (14:1), a man plagued by illness and all types of misfortune, questioning his place in eternity, the meaning of life, and where he stands before the Almighty God.

There is great synchronicity between Job's thinking (esp ch14) and that of the writer of Ecclesiastes:

• our life is fleeting in the scale of things
  
• seeking meaning often results in a belly-full of wind
  
• we cannot hope to comprehend anything that lasts for eternity (well, an aion) (let alone anything that lasts more than a lifetime!)
  
• we are just the same as the animals in our origins and destinations - ie, dust! - even the plants can claim some superiority over us: Job 14:7-10;

For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its roots grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil;
Yet at the scent of water it will bud,
and put out branches like a young plant.
But man dies, and is laid low;
Man breathes his last, and where is he?