Essay 35 - How Knowing Who You Are Helps the Cultivation of Meaning

We spent a lot of time in the past several essays about getting to know who you are. But this book is about cultivating meaning. How are the two connected? First, I should point out that nothing is universally meaningful although there are things meaningful to more people than other things. Second there is no cultivated meaning that is universally meaningful although, again, there are many kinds of cultivated meaning that are more popular than others. Third, there are many things that you can cultivate into meaning, but they will not be the same as the many things that somebody else finds meaningful.

To go back to ice cream for a moment, there are over 50 flavors of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. For each flavor, there is someone, probably many, many people who see it as their favorite. And there are some who cannot stand it. Yes, I personally, find that hard to believe. The point is that people like different things. However, there are also over 300 discontinued flavors which means that not everything you try will work.

Here are some more serious examples. Most people find having a child to be very meaningful. But there are some that don’t, for a wide variety of reasons. Many people feel they can cultivate meaning in literature or travel whereas others don’t. On the other hand, some find cultivated meaning is writing haiku’s or playing different passages of music. But most people don’t.

The problem is that if you are trying to discover things from which to cultivate meaning for the person you pretend to be, it is going to be an uphill climb. I won’t say it can’t happen. You might discover things about yourself along the way that help you understand who you really are. And of course, it is never perfect. You might find something that is meaningful enough for a person that is almost you.

However, the better you know yourself and the better you understand yourself the better chance you will have at finding things that work for you. It will never be perfect, but at least try to do your best.

This essay is 370 words long and the audio is about 2 3/4 minutes.