The Depth of Meaning
Simple Reflection on the Meaning of Life
When it comes to the meaning of life, it is easy to think that money, education, and the attainment of power speaks to our significance. What we come to realize is that these things are all superficial. I know that I have to search and discern what my life means in its entirety. I discover my meaning of life when I experience, reflect, and reason out what I went through in those experiences.
We seek out the meaning in our lives because it answers that question we all want the answer to — “why am I here?” Through all of the struggles and challenges that we go through, we would like to think that there is a reason. I know that through all of the struggles that I have had, they have made an effect on how I look at life. I believe that we know we have meaning, but the pressing issue is figuring out what that meaning truly is. In Paul Tillich’s “The Depth of Existence,” he says “truth is deep and not shallow; suffering is depth and not height” (Tillich, 1). When I talked before about money, education, and power being superficial subjects, Tillich, also, would have classified those things as shallow. Not to say that they do not contribute to the meaning of life, but it is a very small, unsubstantial portion. Money, education and power are finite things. Those things only last for a moment. Yes they do come with a struggle, but it is not an infinite struggle that directly connects with the meaning of our lives.
Thomas Nagel talks about absurdity and why people think that life is absurd. One of the most important lines in his article about absurdity says “reflection on our minuteness and brevity appears to be intimately connected with the sense that life is meaningless” (Nagel, 717). Nagel expresses a human argument that life is meaningless because we will die soon anyway. He responds to that argument by saying that the people who say that are wrong. There is always a reason for doing something, or a reason for a particular experience. Let us say that a young person in college wants to become a lawyer by the end of their educational experience. When this person was a young child, they experienced a certain level of injustice that made them feel the need to speak up and develop an argument for why that level of injustice was unethical. That young person can reflect and tell that story in an interview that gets them into law school to pursue their dreams. That experience lead that young person to want to become a lawyer because it was a meaningful experience.
When it comes to the meaning of life for me, I have drawn from all of the experiences I have had in the past and figured out what it all meant. I know that I want to make an impact on someone’s life one day. How I will do that I do not know, but I know that making a difference in someone’s life is important to me. There were many people who helped me and my family when we were struggling to understand our dire situation. I want to make an impact on someone’s life just like they made an impact on mine. When we are concerned with the meaning of our lives, we are taking serious care of our lives. No, we do not have to take our lives too seriously, but we cannot say that it is meaningless either (Nagel, 719).
When it comes to the meaning of my life, helping people and making an impact are two of the most important things for me. I value those two things because there were many people who have helped me along the way, and I would want to return the favor; but to more people. I feel that I was called to be a positive influence in someone’s life in some way, whether it is through my work, or giving someone advice. I do not feel that that value will ever change because I will never be satisfied by helping just one person. I believe that I will most likely discover more attributes to my meaning, but I will never be content with reaching it and not consistently living it. That is what the value of life is for all people. We have to continually live out all of the core values that we discover or already hold close to us. That is the true depth of meaning.
Sources:
The Absurd by Thomas Nagel: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2024942?origin=JSTOR-pdf
The Depth of Existence by Paul Tillich: http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=378&C=72
