A New Search for Meaning

If you have not done so – then please read Victor Frankl’s in search

of meaning.

In a post-modern world we have to ask if the harsh reality that he

discovered – which is the essential statement that we all are motivated

by a search for meaning is really the only reality that we can have.

I think not. Dianetics, psychology, evolution, spirituality and many

other wisdoms all rely on the fact that we need to look inside, build

appreciation and that will lead to a conclusion on meaning. The bare

essential of these philosophies are barren and distraught and paint a

post-apocalyptic picture of an individual that only has the option to

seek fulfilment in the mere fact that we have survived the day.

I believe that should you choose – that you can change your whole

destiny today. It does mean doing radical things – getting out on the

edge and chasing a better day.

I read a cool cartoon that depicted the earth as a place in which all

the major religions were fighting. An alien was looking down on the

earth and commented – “As far as I can make out – they are all fighting

about which one is more peaceful”.

The crux really is that peace is not the objective. The messiness of

daily life, the grittiness of being and of aspiring and of being

appointed and disappointed of things around us is as powerful as the

search for peace as a path to meaning.

I believe that peace only gives us the canvas on which we can build

dreams – it somehow clears the past and let us reconcile ourselves with

the perceived limitations that we have. But to what end? The end should

be clear as the path that will allow us to seek progress and express our

full potential in all things.

In searching for meaning – one can only realise that meaning is not a

lonely discovery but one to be shared – for only in seeking do you find

others and realise that you are not alone.