Our quest for Meaning
It took me days, tears & silence to write down words, beyond the ones resting in my mental & intuitive spheres.
In a world of confinement more or less intense depending on our circumstances, one could have expected silence & calm, as we suddenly all had to «withdraw» from the outer world.
I was far to realize the « noise » I would then feel, quite in drastic opposition, to my sudden forced solitary & terrifying confinement.
Instead, I was welcomed to this new land (called "confinement") with immense noise emerging from my mental space in distress and the growing noise I would sense on social media, as our immediate response to remain somehow connected. I, then, got lost, in my own noise and in others’.
Overwhelmed by news, updates, online stuff, by theories explaining why we collectively had to go through this universal challenge, the supposedly lessons....and, I got lost in the greater noise created in our desperate quest to survive and to sense the collective which we, illusionary, felt was disappearing.
I confess, I feel confused, in our collective urge to already draw conclusions, to see paradigm shifts everywhere, to be told the emotions we are supposed to have or feel.
I have to press another button «pause» since the one we were sent does not seem strong enough for us all to understand or most probably for us to stop trying to understand what, at this stage, cannot be fully understood.
And what if we could let go of our urge to constantly want to comprehend?
I have been reflecting over the last few days on extreme events and confinement...Isn't it a moment to feel confrontation between the bright and the less bright in each of us? Mirror of what is out there?
And what if there was no explanation in any of this drama the world is currently facing?
How scary this thought can be...right?
Why do we all seem to have this constant need to find « meaning »? It seems that our quest for meaning is what distinguishes us from animals...
I have to take again one of my favorite books from Viktor Frankl who survived the concentration camps and defines well that it is our very essence as human beings to need «meaning». We always have to find meaning in our suffering, not later, no, right now....I recently had a ski accident and of course all kinds of theories arose including my own about the reason for this accident instead of just taking time to actually feel my injury, feel my body in pain. Nope, immediately I, we, have to find meaning, somehow it feels reassuring when there is some kind of meaning to our suffering. I wonder if we are not simply bypassing it, and it could well be (or not) what is, collectively also happening right now...
Having meaning in life’s events seems to guarantee greater happiness...
I wonder if anybody ever found some kind of «meaning» to certain horrors and to the extreme confinements History (or Mother Earth) had to witness? Wars, genocides, concentration camps, etc...Was/is there any meaning into this? Do I think that those horrors could have been the sign of the Universe, or of the Mother Earth?
I put down a hypothesis: what if there was simply no sense, no meaning at all, and more importantly, what if, it was just too early to think about this as we are all (at various degrees) so much still in the event itself, to actually know anything?
It would be just arrogant to even draw any conclusion in the midst of it all. Do we have a good sense of the taste of our pasta if we taste them half way of their required cooking? That feels a bit similar.
For now, I personally feel the need to lower the volume of the noise and press PAUSE (and stay at home of course). And I just want to pray, pray for all suffering for their survival right now. As simple as that.
May we overcome this planetary challenge as soon as possible.
Stay well & safe. 🙏✨🌷
