Yet, their absence is no proof for nihilism, either. This is the immemorial conflict of life and art. As the old adage goes, the real difference between life and art is that one can't do anything about life. And around this existential truth, we learn to make our life an art. Art opens the way into the dream kingdom - the realm of the unreal, of the sacred nothing.
Pure potential is nothing.
The future is nothing. The past is nothing. Every alternative to the present is nothing. The imagination, because it de-realizes the present and enters the mysterious domain of pure potential, is nothing. Yet, out of that nothing, we ransom all the meaning in our lives.