XX MEANING

Meaning is at the heart of our mental existence. We search for meaning in all things and in all events of which we are aware. To have a life without meaning is one of the greatest tragedies. We have little interest in that in which we find no meaning. Our search for understanding is largely a search for meaning. But how does this affect our lives?

What we have is myth. Our life is forward progression through myth. That is what we do. That is all we do. We do it however we can. We are constantly sorting through the information we gather about the world to find that which we can use for mythic advancement. Does this pertain to my myth and is it useful? Does it alter the course or nature of my myth? Is my world significantly different because this is in it? Has its arrival meant I cannot go back to life as it was before? The myth is the mental filter, sorting out the mythically relevant from the great mass that is not. That which is, we find meaningful. That which is not, we do not. That which we are unclear about is of uncertain meaning. The nature of its meaning is in how it fits into one’s particular myth. Thus what is very meaningful to me may be nothing to you, and something quite different to someone else. Meaning is mythic relevance. What something means to me is what it has to do with my myth.

Meaning grows out of relation to myth and myth is a product of our minds. Therefore meaning is not an inherent quality of anything but rather a quality we bestow upon it, a function of its relation to ourselves.

We like to believe that meaning is an inherent quality so that it can be counted on and help us believe in the absolute truth of our myths. However, when we do so, we forget that myths are what we make them and in so doing we lose much of our power to remake our lives.

A major source of meaning is the use of moral metaphor. Something, perhaps an object, an action, or an idea, is given a moral identity beyond its inherent nature. It becomes a symbol of a larger statement about the world, a freestanding moral demonstration. A fancy new car means life is sexy and exciting. Broken windows mean degeneracy and hopelessness.

Actually, a car is just a car. A broken window is just that. But we want it to be more. We want things to be symbols. Symbols are entries to a larger world, one where everything has a magical moral quality that affects the nature of the entire situation. The symbol validates certain morals, giving us a feeling of moral confirmation and mythic progression. By doing so, the symbol holds our attention. We seek out symbols. The waterfall at the end of our five mile hike into the mountains is more than just water going over a cliff. It is a releaser of mythic material and character possibilities within us.

The symbol is a moral metaphor, it has a moral package, and as such can become a character in the myth. “That sink full of dirty dishes is staring at me, nagging me about what a slob I am.” If they were just dirty dishes and not a symbol of slovenliness, you would not feel guilty about them, nor would their existence take on a dramatic role in demonstrating your deficiency. They would just be dirty dishes and nothing more.

Similarly, we wrap our goals in moral metaphor. We convince ourselves that getting what we want will prove us right, validate our myth, demonstrate the truth of the morals we hold dear. Most of what we buy we use to prop up one moral or another through metaphor. That is the essence of taste and personal style. Notice how often advertisements suggest a moral metaphor for a product. Madison Avenue assumes we want what it means, not what it is. The metaphor trumps the product.

In addition to seeing things irrelevant to our myths as meaningless, we sometimes call things meaningless that are obstacles to our moral demonstrations. The actions of another which are counter to the thrust of our moral demonstrations tend to disprove them, and we may seek to lessen the alpha of the other person by labeling his actions as meaningless, proclaiming that they are mythically irrelevant and thus are to be ignored. Still, we may be deeply affected by those actions.

Forgiveness
We may be so deeply affected that we have difficulty getting past what happened. That obstacle someone threw into your path may forever rankle and prevent development of your relationship with him. It may occupy your thoughts and interfere with anything else you are trying to get done. The answer is to forgive. But what does it mean to forgive? If you have done me wrong and I forgive you, I no longer hold it against you. This may take various forms. First may be just the appearance of forgiveness, in which I still feel wronged but no longer show it. This is not genuine forgiving. Second, we may decide that what appeared to be an offense was in fact a benefit, so no harm done. Third, we may consider the offense trivial, no longer worth worrying about. Fourth, even though the offense was serious and real, we may move beyond it so it no longer has effect.

The first is a deception. The second is a shift in perceived moral demonstration from negative to positive, and thus a transformation of meaning of the event. It is no longer bad because it is now good. The action now produces a different moral demonstration. The third is a removal of mythic relevance, so it does not matter any more. It is no longer bad because it is now insignificant. The moral demonstrated has lost its priority or else the demonstration has lost its validity. The fourth involves a mythic progression or transformation beyond the transgression’s area of meaning. What happened may still be bad but it does not matter because we are no longer there. The moral demonstrated has ceased to be part of our moral package. Which of the four strategies is best depends on one’s own myth and the overall situation.

Another technique to help you forgive is to see actions for what they are rather than seeing them as moral metaphors. The most innocent act can be seen as an attack if you interpret it as symbolic of one. Even purposely aggressive acts lose much of their mythic force when stripped of their metaphoric significance.

The Meaning of Life
In any discussion of meaning, one soon gets to that ultimate question “What is the meaning of life?” In the comics one climbs to the top of some tall, conical mountain to ask the guru who sits atop the peak.

Never mind the mountain. Here is an answer. The meaning of life, at least for humans, is moral demonstration through mythic progression. That is what we all do, all the time, with our lives. It is what human life is about, and that is its mythic significance, its meaning. So there you have it.

Here is another answer. The meaning of life is, for you, whatever meaning you give it and believe to be true. The meaning of life is not an absolute but rather is your choice, within your power to determine.

However, many people take the question to mean something entirely different. They see the question more as “What is the optimum life?” or “What should I do with my life?” These are also valid questions, and we might as well address them now.

Obviously one needs a lifestyle that makes one’s survival reasonably secure, with basic needs met and some degree of comfort. That is generally assumed. Proceeding beyond that point one encounters a bewildering variety of choices. Both questions are really versions of “What should be my myth?” To answer that question we must determine what morals in what priority are to be demonstrated. They will determine the course of the myth. Having contradictory morals in the mix will lead to contradictory actions, so that the left hand is tearing down what the right hand is building. Most myths contain some moral contradiction, but too much makes for an ineffective life, as an advance on one moral demonstration retards or reverses another, and the mythic progression stalls.

The group myth of whomever you associate with will profoundly affect your own. Having the right personal myth is easier around some groups and virtually impossible with others. Spend your time with people whose myths you admire.

The Optimum Myth
That is all well and good, but the question remains—“Which morals are to be demonstrated in the optimum myth?” This is a much more difficult question, which is highly dependent on your definition of optimum myth, which is in turn dependent on its moral package. The question chases its tail. Still, some things can be said. One does not have an infinite choice of human groups to associate with, and a purely solo life is hardly optimum. So the ideal myth for you will need to have sufficient overlap with the myth of some group to allow you to effectively interact with it. What about a utopian scheme-—starting an ideal myth for the perfect group to form around? This has been tried many times with varying success. You must cope with the influences of non-ideal myth brought to the group by the other members (and yourself!) as well as having to live in the larger world.

In developing an ideal myth for yourself you must also consider the influences of instinct. They cannot be ignored, for, if so, they will rule. But is instinct the ideal guardian of your best interests? No. Instincts work in the interests of the species, not the individual. They developed to preserve the human species in a prehistoric tribal situation, one in which nobody lives today. Members of prehistoric tribes probably had less need for questions about the meaning of life. But we are stuck trying to have a better life in a modern, mostly urban environment. Some of the problems faced by ancient tribes, such as securing a dependable food supply or safety from predation by other animals, are largely solved. On the other hand, we have some new ones, such as the threat of international war, or the inaccessibility of cultural alpha sources, or the daily contact with strangers. Suffice it to say that instinct is no longer a reliable guide to the optimum personal myth, if it ever was.

The optimum personal myth should not work against the overall welfare of humanity. Here another open-ended question appears—what is best for our species? We are immediately led to ask what is best for our planet, for the universe. So far, what is best for the universe is close to what is best for the planet, since our extraterrestrial effects at present are small. What is best for the earth is being hotly debated by millions in every country at present; it would be getting too far off our track to enter into such debate here.

Still, the question remains—What is best for humanity? We need for everyone to be able to live with basic survival secure and to have a positive and constructive myth that makes the world a better place and allows all others, present and future, to do likewise.

If one accepts some outside moral structure such as a religion or the example set by one’s hero as being right without question, an ideal myth can be developed along the lines of the model. Cultural tradition is also often seen as a guide.

But it would seem there is no one ideal myth for all people. Keep your myth moving in the most optimum direction you can, toward ideals that you find worthy of high priority and of lasting value in your moral universe. Work it out as you go the best you can, using everything you can learn along the way.

Further help will be found in the next chapter.