In a book which seems so focused on saying that everything we can do in life is vanity, what is there to take from it? When I first began reading it, so much of what was said seemed downright depressing, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to see that its words were truly freeing in a sense. It is so easy to get caught up in the details of life and the day to day tasks that there is a certain freedom to be gained from viewing our toils as vanity. This possible perspective is made all the more interesting considering that the person commonly thought to be the author of the book is King Solomon, someone who had pretty much everything that daily toils can produce. Moreover, when he lists the one thing that is not vanity and will last as that which is done by God, that sense of freedom becomes even greater. It was simply helpful to me to be reminded of the fact that only what God does will have any lasting impact on this world and it was encouraging to also note that the rest of it is vanity by comparison.