Setting Up

At the risk of being cliche, I have to ask: why are we alive? I mean that in the sense of "what's the meaning of each of our individual lives," and also in the sense of "why does humanity at large exist." Why are we alive, why do we continue to live, and why the hell do I feel the need to ask this?
However you phrase it, it's a good question, or collection of questions. It's like a massive cave whose topmost tunnels have been explored thoroughly over thousands of years of human history, but which still holds untold depths to be plumbed. Maybe that's why everyone seems to view it as an overly obvious or useless pursuit - a problem that seems important at first glance, but which only fools attempt to solve. The very nature of the question makes it incredibly difficult to recognize a "correct" answer.
Ultimately though, aside from the people who believe that they already know, we all want to find that answer, and that's reason enough not to give up on it just because it seems futile at the moment. There are still serious, educated, determined people that are attempting to solve this problem as we speak. So why don't average people think about it and talk about it way more often? By "average," I mean people who don't make a career or even a hobby out of philosophy. I suppose what I'm asking is, why isn't philosophy considered a hobby for the entire human race?
You may be aware of the popular perception of philosophy as being the sole property of pretentious preppies and post-secondary posers (people who are far less likely to derive pleasure from the simple act of accidental alliteration). Is that all that's stopping people from thinking about those questions regularly, and not just when they're in college or having their midlife crisis?
Personally I think about it constantly. Sometimes, I think it's literally driving me insane. I don't know whether I'm on a downward spiral into madness or an upward spiral into reality-transcending knowledge. It might even turn out that I'm just being humorously melodramatic. In all of these cases, the results would be similarly mind-bending, earth-shattering, perhaps even chthonic. Now you have been warned (OoooOOOoooh!) and are prepared to choose: stop reading, or follow me along the spiral.

Where am I going?
Crazy.
Want to come?