MEANING: WHERE EXACTLY DOES IT COME FROM?

 

Some time in the summer of 1967, my parents had sex and I was the result.  So when people ask me the existential question of how I came to be, that is my answer.  It seems quite simple.  "My parents had sex."  No one can dispute that. It is well known knowledge now. Good-bye stork myth.  

When people ask that question, more often than not, they might be looking for something behind and beyond the gathering of two souls and bodies on a B.C. summer night.  They are looking for my understanding of the grand plan of the cosmos.  But as Dr. Pete Enns says "That's beyond my pay grade."  

Leaving behind the narrative of the first five decades of my existence has actually simplified my life.  I no longer have to do the mental gymnastics routine to explain the unexplainable.  I no longer have to know what happened beyond the meeting of one sperm and one egg.  That was a weight lifted from my shoulder.  I don't even know how that sperm and egg made me.  The story sounds fascinating... but the mechanics of how it actually works.  I didn't take that class in college.  

Maybe the other reason that sex isn't enough of an answer for people, is the whole subject of "Meaning".  It's okay if animals have sex and create other animals and life goes on for them, but for some reason,  humans need meaning.  We need a purpose; we need a reason for living.  It's not enough to just be.  

I've heard a lot of voices lately that say that there is no meaning in the universe.  The universe doesn't care about us.  Actually, those voices will cite evidence that the universe is trying to kill us.  Evidence... there's that word again.  But it makes sense.  It explains the natural disasters.  This world is not a safe place for most of us.  So if the universe doesn't care about us, where do we find meaning?  And here is the narrative that excites me.  

We are the meaning makers.  We live in a universe that is meaningless and somehow that same universe "gave birth" to a species of meaning makers.  I like that narrative.  I can't explain it, but I like it.  I no longer have to wait for someone else to define my purpose.  I can go on the journey of discovery and find it myself.  It might take a while, because that journey back to self is a long one for most.  That is where we eventually find that the meaning is in us.  We are the meaning makers.  

My favourite synonym of "meaning" is significance.  Like a valuable pearl, significance isn't first found on a necklace in a store for others to see and admire.   This treasure is first  harvested from within a living creature and with a lot of care and precision, only then can the pearl be taken out and displayed for the world to see.  Now that's a cool narrative.