I retired a favorite old t-shirt. The text read:
Jean Paul Sartre’s answering machine
… I am not here
… You’re not here
… Don’t leave a message
… There is no beep
Some angst at letting it go.
The meaning of its 21 years of existence?
Was it only to cover a man’s torso?
And now it is committed to the void.
Or to the landfill, where it will rest in pieces …
Related: Sartre’s classic essay “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” in my Philosophers, Explained series.