I would argue that we are always seeking meaning. Ok, maybe not “always” but it is certainly something we spend a lot of time on. Stories are by far one of our best methods for making meaning. The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we embrace and embody, all the ways stories inform us of our “why”…
Finding meaning as individuals can be a lifelong quest. But there’s something unique about our species.
We can seek meaning as a group.
And when a group or collective finds meaning, that’s when things get really interesting.
As individuals, we like to know our “why”. We like to understand how things work, our role in these things and so on and so forth. But that’s just one dimension.
When we find meaning as a collective, bringing our own unique threads of “why” into a larger creation, we create something formidable.
I think it’s fair to say that our individual meaning-making threads find greater strength and endurance when woven into a collective effort. It’s easier to navigate uncertainty when we have others to rely upon.
The threads of meaning-making will always be seeking new manifestations, but when we create collective meaning, we become unstoppable.
Indeed. Ive thought about this quite a bit. When I was a teenager and very active in the Orthodox church, I found a ton of meaning in the symbolism and cycles of the church. It was a shared meaning with hundred of people. But as an adult I found those stories to be a type of "narrow universality" - Where all questions have answers.
I've since widened my universe beyond dogma and certainty, accepting a deep ineffability and therefore a profound solitude. It's very hard to create/ find a community of ineffability :) no one has patience for unknowing. And even when you find someone who does, the conversation quickly goes quite .. because words are not enough.
I still attend church but I do it for mostly anthropological reasons. I observe, evaluate and maintain a distance that gives the ineffability space.
And finally I realized as David Whyte said, pain is the ultimate portal to the present. Being incarnate in the world, being vulnerable in the most mortal way is what gives life meaning. And this, slowly, connects me to all life on this rich plane of existence.