One of the most interesting questions I’ve had comes from Neil in Blacktown: What is the purpose of meaning?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume Neil is asking about meaning in a spiritual and philosophical sense, rather than talking about meaning in a literal way. If I’m wrong Neil I’m sorry and will have wasted a lot of time writing this.

I found this to be a really deep question. It’s not ‘What is the meaning of life?’ but ‘What is the purpose of meaning?’. And that is something that I had never considered before.

I guess the purpose of meaning is to give your life purpose to give a glib answer, but it’s so much more than that. You can say things like ‘my purpose in life is to watch that movie/date that girl/get that promotion’ but those are goals which can be achieved. They may be fleeting meanings, but they are not meaning in and of itself.

For me the purpose of meaning is what makes you want to get out of bed each day. Not because you have to (alarm clock, work, check out at 10 etc) but because you want to continue down a path which is intrinsic to who you are and what you believe you are here for – essentially what gives your existence meaning. And what gives your life meaning can be transient, it can change over time. I wanted to be a stand-up comic when I was younger, but despite how strongly I felt about it it did not give my life meaning, otherwise I certainly would have tried harder. I love to collect Transformers, it remains a very big and important part of my life, but it does not give my life meaning. I think in part the purpose of meaning is something so important to you, something so quintessential to your being that in the end it helps define deep down who you actually are.

Maybe the best way to illustrate what I am saying is to use my own life as an example. In my personal experience, I have had three major factors that have given my life meaning, things beyond simple wants, urges and passions.

• When I was a teen and then at Uni it was FUN – fun was literally what gave my life meaning and it’s all I wanted to do each day – I wanted to have fun!  I was annoyingly cheerful back then, I could not imagine my life getting any better because despite having zero money, a mediocre acting career and an irritating girlfriend, my days were packed with video games, mates, parties and living with my best friend whom I spent 90% of my time laughing with. Fun was my meaning, and my meaning was damn fun!
• In my 20’s NEW EXPERIENCES was what gave my life meaning. I wanted to know everything, to go everywhere, to eat and drink and consume anything I hadn’t before. If there was something I hadn’t tried I wanted – needed to try it! I threw away my fledgling teaching career and took off overseas and spent a year backpacking across Europe. I ate things I had never heard of, learned languages I couldn’t pronounce a word of before, visited a dozen of the world’s biggest art galleries, went to Octoberfest and got drunk, went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and did comedy. When I came back from Europe I still tried new things, went to music gigs, hippy festivals, the theatre, the footy – somewhere I even have a DVD of me swearing very loudly as I throw myself off a bridge when bungy-jumping in New Zealand.
• In my 30’s, now less than two years off the big Four Oh (dear Primus where did the time go!?),  FAMILY has become my meaning and it is the strongest most defining meaning my life has ever had. I love my wife dearly, will never be with another person ever and we’ve had 13 great years together thus far. But now I am a father with a 3 year old son and a 1 year old daughter and they provide my life with a level of meaning that I had never considered possible. I am a Dad. It’s who I am, it’s what I am, it’s why I’m here and it’s by far the single most important thing in my life. My children provide my life with a meaning that dwarfs everything else. I go to my job so I can provide them with food and shelter, I work my hobby farm so they have a nice place to grow up on in the country, I am filled with an indescribable joy when I come back from work each day to see them both throw a happy fit because Dad is home before throwing themselves into my arms. My kids are the most important part of my life and I can’t see that ever changing. So for me, my kids are my meaning, and the purpose of meaning is what makes me Me.

I hope everyone reading this can find a meaning that makes you You, and I hope my ramblings have has answered your question Niel (or at least provided a nice distraction for a few minutes eh!).