Ecclesiastes chapter 2

vs 1

Pleasure seems to drive so much of what we do, but it's true to say that once you get it, it's gone. There is no lasting effect of pleasure, certainly not in any eternal capacity.

vs 2

Laughter makes us feel good. That's why we watch comedies. But if all it does is that - give a momentary, fleeting hit of good feeling - then what benefit is it? It is folly. In a miserable world, I guess you could go one step further and say that to embrace laughter is to embrace madness - a disconnection with reality. I'm not sure if Qoheleth is going quite so far.

vs 3

Should we just numb the pain of life with wine, and use external matters to keep our bodies in a state of, if not cheer, then at least stupor? I love that he did this "while his mind still guided him with wisdom." It makes me wonder whether he actually did it at all, or just thought about it, or observed those who had done it.

vs 4-6

For some people, this idea of 'great projects' is what drives them. Whether it is seeing a huge bridge with their name on it, or to be known as the one who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or just having a garden and knowing that you helped these things grow, or that you can now sustain your life with the stuff you made grow, people really get into this 'I did it my way" Sinatra-esque thing.

vs 7-9

All of this is basically an amassing of great wealth. It certainly does sound like Solomon. And in fact, if we think of it that way - that Solomon was doing a philosophical experiment by marrying hundreds of women and having hundreds more as concubines - then perhaps we wouldn't feel so bad about it. For science!

Whether that's true or not is up for discussion I guess. In any case, the point is that he made himself rich in every way, with all the trappings of riches, from slaves to concubines to just big piles of money, in an effort to see if, once you got to the top of the pile of cash, there was a meaning.