One's self-identity is based on those abstractions they find meaningful, whether it be sports, work, politics, philosophy or something else.

As a child, we had an awesome Brittany Spaniel named "Spunky".  This glorious dog would defend me and members of my family ferociously.  He would attack anyone that erred in venturing into our backyard.  Some children, adjacent to our backyard, had tormented Spunky by throwing planters at him across the fence, thus his aggression.

He had trust issues.  Still, Spunky trusted me.

In mathematics, the mean is the average of comprised values.  It is an attempt to find consensus, the aggregate opinion of a population.  Mythos is the collection of narratives communicated across groups.  The concept of mythos has no direct ability to account for the binary accountability of truth.  Mythos can be a lie.

To any who ventured into his territory, Spunky was mean.  His anger, bred by aforementioned neighbor's children, caused him to chase a meter-reader across our chain-link fence.  My odd hillbilly-esque family got a big kick out of that.

Spunky was very territorial.  Nonetheless, upon entering a field, readied for a hunt, his disposition completely changed.  He was focused and friendly to all present.  Were the same company presented to him back home, he'd show only furious aggression. 

As human beings, with our biologically-limited mechanisms for understanding this universe, we constantly search for meaning.  All humanity's historical mythology, our constant craving for mythos, is little more than a search for the meaning to our rise to the peak of this mountain.  Stated differently, why something rather than nothing.

Only there is no nothing.  There is only something.

Perhaps there is no meaning either.  It may seem a nihilistic view but it doesn't need to be so.

Humanity, as improbable as it is, created a mechanism that led to mythos.  No other known creature has accomplished such a feat.  And in it's yearning to understand it's environment, to find meaning to it's existence, has developed systems that could viably upend said very existence.

And this itself sufficiently serves as an answer to "why something rather than nothing."  While there may be many who are mean or indifferent, there are more engaged and kind, collaborative and cooperative.  Context is everything.

To my alien senses, this is the very definition of grace and beauty.  It is the foundation of human art and culture.  It is the celebration of humanity itself.

Empathy is the penultimate manifestation of maximum power.

All humans have agency.  Free will does exist.