Meaning isn’t something handed down from a sky‑father with a pointing finger. It’s something humans make as we go, choosing what matters and discarding the rest. I’d rather build a life without theatrics or the sort of almost‑crying performances that clutter daytime TV.
The Search Is the Meaning
It’s funny how the old question, ‘What is the meaning of life‘, still hangs around as dinner-party chat, or like a bit of inherited furniture no one quite knows what to do with.
For me, meaning isn’t something waiting out there in the cosmos like a prize to be claimed and objects and encounters with other humans don’t come pre‑loaded with significance. It’s in the meetings, the conversations we have that give meaning and to be frank, I’d rather get on with living a decent life down here on Earth, on my own terms rather than listen to an ancient ‘sky-father’.
That’s the point, really. A good life isn’t built on theatrics, ancient books written for other people in another age, or simple fakery. The meaning of life isn’t constructed in the overwrought drama you see on television when someone hovers on the brink of tears but never quite gets there. That kind of performance doesn’t interest me.
Meaning, if it’s to be worth anything, has to lift us out of the mud in which we live on a daily basis even if for a little. True meaning has to be about human progress , clarity, honesty, and the quiet work of becoming better than we were yesterday. Not noise or spectacle and the endless churn of almost‑emotions we see on TV interviews.
So where does that leave us? Somewhere honest, I think. Somewhere uncertain, but in a good way, because meaning isn’t a treasure hunt through the Universe with a final answer waiting at the end. It’s the daily search for meaning itself that matters.
The act of looking, questioning, choosing, and probably trying again. The universe around all of us keeps shifting and so do we in reaction to change. Meaning is the dynamic way we keep pace with change.
Maybe that’s enough and maybe we should just put away the old books and talk to each other about how we lift ourselves from the mud in which we live.