"The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity, is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century. I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately in the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feel good about life. Existentialism is often discussed as if it's, a philosophy of despair, but I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre, once interviewed, said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. One thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as, a real kind of exuberance, of feeling on top of it, it's like your life is yours to create. I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration, but when I read them I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as fragmented of marginalised, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when Sartre talks about responsibility, he's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It's something very concrete, it's you and me talking, making decisions, doing things, and taking the consequences. It might be true that there are six billion people in this world, and counting, but nevertheless -what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms, it makes a difference to other people, and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off or see each other as a victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are."

This was the quote I chose to share for the movie thing at the the start of the year. I didn't get the response I was looking for.

"I don't understand it"
"I think that's the point"

Then I realized that Shenelle and David don't know what existentialism is. They thought it was just another crazy man's abstract philosophy. They didn't realize that it's something real, and that this isn't just another philosophical movement.

This is the philosophical movement.

Did Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, Rousseau, Nietzsche or Freud discover the meaning of life? Did they figure out why we're here?

Existentialism did.

We're here because a random combination of DNA just happened to be you.
And there is no meaning of life, which (conveniently) allows you to attribute your own meaning to it:
Life has no meaning, but you can make it meaningful.

But what does Existentialism say? What is this "exuberance"? this "feeling on top of it"? as if "it's like your life is yours to create" and this "ability to make something of yourself and feel good about life"?
Why is Robert Solomon saying this?

Because you have free will, and because you won't live forever. Make the most of your life because it is all that you get.
Life is your canvas and it's your responsibility to yourself to paint what you'd like to see.