Meaning Making 1

I am starting to get more of this meaning making nature of humanity.

We make meaning even when there are no facts to support a conclusion. Exploration requires no justification. Exploration however is driven by a desire for meaning, a desire for things to make sense. In fact at some level, if things do not make sense, they cannot be. This is an interesting observation. Wherever there is a boundary there is a reason that can explain the boundary. We act on the premise that there is at least a reason that can be found if it is not known. This is a part of all of us. It is a connecting feature that generates culture, art, science, and every other human endeavor. When it is so easy to generate differences between people, we forget, or at least I forget, about what connects us. When there is no shared meaning we are connected by meaning making that invents a shared meaning, even if there is agreement that there is no shared meaning.

While these ideas are not new, I would propose they are underutilized. What is the implication for the education with regard to our meaning making? What are the implications on religion and religious life?

Our meaning making is like nature, where there is a void, we will fill it. There is always an implication for our filling. And the implications are always more than simple cause and effect. There are always multiple systems happening and changing at once.

Meaning making reflects the reason why hide and seek is such a fun game in all of its versions. We see something or a possibility. We create a meaning about that thing. We then want to see if the meaning we created was right. If it was right, we are encouraged to do it again. So not only is meaning making part of the make up but an underlying desire for verification. The verification process is not just a desire to be right, but to feel what that something or possibility incited in us. In other words we create and recreate meaning to create and recreate emotions, which then drive what we do.

So this is a meaning making model in the rough. I think however our own personal struggles with these topics will help us get it. And when you get it, you realize that the world you were living in was bound up in all sorts of limitations that no one can tell you are not there. At least not until there is a realization that, yes, there is something more out there.