Does Life Have Meaning?
In my first Steemit post, I spoke on the futility of seeking answers to such curiosities, and offered an explanation as to why it is a far more productive use of time to choose our own. In the quest to discover meaning in one's life, the usefulness of this understanding becomes most clear. For meaning is not an intrinsic value ascribed to individual objects, but rather a subjective value attributed to said objects through an observer. To one, a knife may be a tool for peeling or cutting food. To another, it is a weapon for inflicting harm on living beings. And yet to some, a knife can serve solely as an instrument used for decorative purposes.
Just as the knife's meaning is dependant upon the observer, so too is the meaning of one's life decided upon through the eyes of the individual. The purpose of your life, through the eyes of another, or the perspective of society, may amount to one thing. But, we have each been given the most gracious gift of choosing for ourselves what meaning we will seize from our own. In searching for meaning for my own, I asked myself; What is the meaning of a dance? What is the meaning of a painting, or a song sung in private for no others to hear? The answer I chose to take home from these questions was; Expression.
Envision this reality as a multidimensional canvas, one in which artists and creators have been expressing themselves upon since the beginning of time. If you observe the world closely, you might notice that many expressions and energies, of varying degrees of influence, already populate that canvas and have done for many centuries. When we are born into this world, we are granted the opportunity to express ourselves, and to influence the world to dance our own dance, and sing our own songs. But the unfortunate truth we can observe, is that the overwhelming majority of us fail to make use of the opportunity, and instead find ourselves being caught up in the influence of ancient energies, dancing along to the beat of another's drum, and living our lives in accordance to an expression that is not truly our own.
Society is designed in such a way as to influence us from childhood to participate in the dance of the adversary. Though we may find some disparity among the ways that we choose to express ourselves within the context of this overarching energy, it is this adversarial energy that has garnered the most influence upon the Earth. Humanity's division is the inevitable outcome to be expected from our decisions to continuously align ourselves with such an energy.
This is not all bad, as nothing is all bad. In studying a tree, we can learn that without the trunk dividing into branches, and the branches dividing further into twigs, we would see no opportunity arise for the development of fruit. Much in the same way, the greatest works of art, poetry and music are potentially a direct consequence of the adversarial energy we choose to express ourselves within, and the resulting division it leads to.
But just as not all is bad, not all is good. And division begets frailty and weakness, as observed in the delicate nature of a twig. Perhaps an energy of unity, love and family, if able to influence our world to the same extent, would result in a strength akin to that of the trunk of a tree.
It is for us to decide what expression we would like to see influencing this world. That choice and that opportunity is a gift none existing can deny. But if we do not make the choice to dance our own dance, and to influence others to join in, then we will soon find ourselves expressing an energy that is not at all our own - but someone else's.
So does life have a meaning? Yes. But that meaning will be someone else's choice if you do not make use of your power to choose one for yourself.
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