Sometimes I go through phases writing a diary... sometimes I write blogs. Sometimes I write nothing at all. Often I have a lot of thoughts, but nothing to say. Often I have no thoughts, and write reams. Sometimes I start out with both, and like a dusty CD player get stuck half way through. Jumping paragraph to paragraph.
I don't really know what I'm writing in this case. I think I am in the lots of thoughts, not a lot to say stage. Frustratingly little, which makes writing a blog that actually has some worth is like... well, like Mission Impossible!
I guess the problem is, if you try and look for a meaning in everything, try to see a poignancy or a piece of obnoxious, over-the-top philosophical thought in all that happens, all that you think, hear and see... well you will be let down. Some things are just as they are. They do not pretend, happy to be frivolous, and not necessarily worth anything more than the passing enjoyment they provide.
Ok, even I am now losing sight of what I mean. I guess this is a follow on from my last post; sometimes we need to stop looking for meaning, purpose etc, and just get on with it!
However, I do still have some questions... like whatever possessed any record company to sign on Daphne & Celeste? Really! A song just made up of rhyming insults. Insane (like a weather vane).
I'm going to do a little jump now (as I warned I do ocassionally... okay, often do)... how brilliant are old songs! I love them. I guess there is something terribly comforting about sneaking back into a world you left behind, and just settle, I guess, into some good old memories.
Here's to the simplicity of the past (because it's over) and the hope of the future (because it's yet to come)...
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12 comments:
Hrmmm I can't decide whether i agree with you or not. I would say that there IS meaning in everything, it's just not always a profound meaning. Sometimes it is a very simple basic meaning/purpose that is not worth over-contemplating. So yeah...kinda agree and disagree.
Definitely agree with the old songs bit though!
I think everything has meaning...surely nothing is actrually meaningless? Everything that happens or is said will have some kind of effect on you even if it is big, small, or insignificant. I guess I would kind of agree on not looking for a mega...amazing...poignancy in everything but surely if there was no meaning in a happening...if there was no point to something...it wouldn't happen, it wouldn't be said, it would be meaningless because it wouldn't actual occur? People don't say things or think things or feel things that have no meaning. Do they?
a) it depends on your definition of 'meaning'...
and b) yes. things can be meaningless... it doesnt mean they dont happen... the wind blowing a plastic bag down a street really does have no meaning. there is no purpose for either wind nor bag. but it still happens.
it's not meaningless. Personally when i see a bag blowing down a street, the pollution upsets me. Meaning is subjective, and therefore nothing can have not meaning unless it means nothing for anyone, which is probably unlikely. I like the wind too! lol
And as for purpose of wind... Well that's a tougher one, but one could say it happens for the purpose of sustaining natural order. If it did not happen, it would break natural order and cause chaos!!
grrrr... first of all, in that instance i wasnt talking about the meaning YOU place in something. Nor was i talking about these individual things separately. But a gust of wind. As it catches a plastic bag (regardless of the pollution thing for now)... the wind has no reason for this, the bag has no reason. It is a random consequence of a number of factors combining together. Nothing more. Unless you PLACE meaning in it. I guess what i was saying was that there are some things that it is pretty impossible to place meaning in!!!
It's not random. It happens exactly as the laws of physics and personal choice demand. That plastic bag is not randomly there, and neither does the wind blow randomly. It blows as physics states, and the bag is placed due to human action. It maybe chaotic-too complicated for us to understand, but that is different.
Perhaps i need to choose my metaphors more carefully...
I think it would also help if I knew what it was I was trying to say...
But that moment has passed on, and ultimately it doesn't matter.
This isn't me backing down/losing whatever...
But your 'it may be too complicated to understand'... is that not what i said with "I guess what i was saying was that there are some things that it is pretty impossible to place meaning in!!! "
Dont you think?
Pop quiz: What is the meaning in the fact that this particular blog seem sto have formed opinions mroe so than some of my other blogs?
The interchangeability of "meaning" and "Purpose" here makes thing rather confusing.
I would disagree that all things have meaning. No they certainly do NOT as they simply cannot.
As to purpose it is the case, in my opinion, that all have it for it is an antecedent to existence.
About the example vicky gave. I agree with her that it thoroughly lacks any meaning. The wind blows to accomplish its purpose and bag has its purpose of carrying stuff. But the shear accident that the bag drifted and got in the way of the wind, the fact itself, has no meaning for anyone let alone the wind or the bag. It simply is a consequence of what has happened. Nothing more nothing less and certainly not imbued with any kind of meaning.
Taj. You say the wind has a purpose 'an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions'...that said is a meaning 'an action that is intended or expressed or signified'! They seem pretty similar to me. Regardless of what meaning YOU find in things...everything happens for a reason. Nothing is random. I don't think there is anything that people couldn't find some kind of meaning in. Yes meaning is subjective. But I believe there is a meaning behind every action regardless as to whether we see or understand the meaning. Even something as seemingly meaningless as wind blowing a plastic bag. As to the popularity of your blog. That can simply be explained by you writing something that was disagreed with enough to create a discussion. :-)
Taj, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you too here. Everything in our world around us affects us, even in a tiny way. Therefore we attribute meaning to what is around us. In the acknowledgement of something, we make judgements about it, and give it meaning.
As for accidents, there are no accidents. Everything has a cause. I think everything induces meaning for itself through existence, and that everything in existence ias as u say, in existence due to it's purpose.
How can something have A meaning when everyone gives it a different meaning. And does that mean that humans must be present for it to have a supposed meaning, which is not one but many different ones. If that is the case then meaning is not a quality that things possess but rather one that is bestowed upon objects by people. Therefore if meaning requires people's existence then it is bound by time since it will no longer exist when mankind dies out. As such, will come a time when no one will be there to give things a meaning let lone many. So will begin a string of meaningless existences. Hence given A meaningless thing can exist then it must be the case that not all have meanings.
Everything induces Purpose for itself and not meaning which is given to it. If the existent induced meaning for itself, how does it know who is looking at it to induce the right meaning for the observer since, as you say, meaning is subjective and how does it manage when multiple people are looking at it.
Reason is different from meaning or purpose. For it is a product of cause and effect. A consequence occurs due to a cause that precedes, such causation is the reason. Does it give it a meaning? No since the cause hasn't seen the consequence. But, we can ask all the other consequences near it to tell us the meaning they have given to our interested consequence. As to purpose, it was there before the cause even occurred.
Example: Many particles collide in the sun(Cause). Particles and light are released (effect). Depending on where they were placed they have different purpose and each has one single purpose, some to warm the earth others to pass by and go further. Meaning? Well, I think it means that it is a symbol that knowledge emanates from one source, but also another part of me says that it means that light chases darkness...
Pardon the rhetorics through out!
nope sorry still disagree, but i'm bored now!
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