A life without meaning is not a life
Here is the deal.
We have two clear choices on the path of being human.
1. We can choose the life of the banal and mundane. Wake up, eat, go to work, earn to buy stuff that we don’t need, eating crap that creates a toxic waste dump of our bodies, made by companies that really don’t care less, buying more junk and more shoes and more gizzmo’s because the last latest and greatest is now obsolete (12 months old), pay for services and insurance that don’t really do anything but create a shit load of money for the company….go home watch incredibly badly made time fillers on TV that somehow keep us perfectly numb, eat more rubbish, go to bed…and do it all again a few hours later. Repeat…for years. Years! At some stage we wake up, surrounded by all the shiny toys, the stuff that says we have made it, but inside we feel like crap, not just because we are probably close to needing a triple bypass having McMac’d ourselves to death, but because somewhere along the way we lost our way. We lost ourselves. We lost the part of us that found joy in watching a sun set, hanging with the kids, learning a new skill, helping a neighbour with their lawn, connecting with loved ones in conversations where the earth moves. We lost connection with the part of ourselves that wanted to do something grand with our lives. Or the part of us that wanted to serve and to do so with remarkable excellence.
2. Or we can choose a life that has meaning. Where we do stuff that matters. Really matters to us. “But I can’t afford to do that”…or what ever lame excuse we give. No time, too much risk, too much debt, too much hard work, not enough education…. A life of meaning doesn’t need money, or stuff. If Viktor Frankl could find meaning being incarcerated in Auschwitz for 4 years I am quite sure if we looked hard enough we might be able to find some meaning in our comparatively over privileged life. People living in what we call third world countries often live a life rich with meaning.They live life. If you have lost your way…then to find it…start with exploring your heart ache. Go to the places where your heart bleeds for something. Injustice, animals, kids, people not living a life of meaning, health…the more painful the heart ache the more likely you are in the right place.
Then choose to do one thing. One little thing that addresses the heart ache. And see how you feel for the doing of it. Learn, adjust, modify, repeat. You never know, one day you may wake up and realise by surprise that you have found your way home. Oh…and if all of us decided that we no longer wanted to buy junk, eat junk, read junk, work at a place that couldn’t care less, run by people who are only interested in their own stock pile.. and if we decided this because we want to live a life of meaning…then I guess we might just upgrade the world. We got the game we got because we play the game.
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