What do you think are the three most important things that help you create meaning out of your own existence on this planet?
Creativity
In the literal sense of creation. I have to make something that didn’t exist before. Something that is my contribution, uniquely mine – something that only I could contribute. Whether that is physical or conceptual, ephemeral, experiential… I need to take part in making something new. Adding to the world. It can be a new understanding or a new person. It can be an “immortal” masterpiece of art, or as fleeting as a comment that impacts one other person, which leads me to…
Connection
And boy did I fight this one. Because it’s so much easier to say I don’t need that. So much easier to believe I don’t need that… the messiness that comes with needing things from other people, needing to interact with other people. I’d love to be a Simon & Garfunkel song. I’d love to be a “rock, an island”. But I can’t. And not only because I’m human and so unfortunately unable to rewire myself suchly without the benefit of significant mental illness. It has been humbling and freeing to recognize and admit that I can’t. I need to create, and I need that creativity to be shared, to be witnessed, to be impactful. I need to add to the world, and I need to see & feel that the world has been added to… that people’s lives are different because theirs intersected with mine. And I need to be impacted by the people whose lives mine intersects with, because that is how I’m driven to create, to express, because that is how I…
Change
I have to see that things can be different. That I can be different. That creativity and connection make a difference.
I’m suddenly remembering a model I was taught once about what true communication is. Something about expressing yourself, sharing that expression and its impact with someone else, and both being changed by the interaction. In that context, maybe the one-sentence answer to your question is that I need to be in communication with the world. Which is a fascinating take that opens up issues around presence and mindfulness, skillful speech and responsibility for impact. What does it mean to truly be in communication, in this sense, with the world around me, and what kinds of personal work and practices support that?
Thank you for this question! Thank you for challenging me to think this through and begin to articulate it. My view is a bit wider, now, than it was when I woke up this morning. Plus I have new things to think about which, given that my brain is my favorite toy, is like getting a new game for my Xbox.
