Continue Searching for Meaning, Grasshopper

When I read fiction, I usually devour the story in as few sittings as possible. It’s like being timed at an all-you-can-eat buffet of literature for me. I keep going back until there’s no more food left in the bin. When I read non-fiction I usually read self-development material, like self-help, spirituality, or leadership development. These I usually read at a much more subdued pace. I take things in little morsels, chewing slowly and savoring each bite. I ruminate, to be honest. Yes, I know that’s gross, but that’s what it’s like. I chew, swallow, regurgitate, chew, swallow, regurgitate, chew, swallow…you get the picture.

It feels like it has taken me six months to read “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink. I’m not actually DONE yet, but I’m getting there. Anyway, today’s morsel ended at the section about mazes and labyrinths. Daniel starts his train of thought with the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” a NY Times Bestseller for a REALLY long time. The gist of the story is this: two rodent-like creatures live in a maze. They wake up one day, and their cheese is not in it’s normal place. Gone. One of them freaks out and decides the best course of action is to wait for someone to take care of their problem. The other freaks out, too, but later decides the best course of action is to go off into the maze in search of food. They hem and haw, but they finally decide to take off in search of food. Then, Pinhead shows up and eviscerates them slowly. Not really. They take off, find new cheese, and live happily ever after. The moral of the story is subtle (he says sarcastically): when change happens, get over it, and move on.

So, the story and the gentleness of the message leave a little to be desired, but the purpose of the story is to demonstrate how action, not denial, create new opportunities when changes strikes. Change strikes a lot these days. Ironically, when Daniel Pink published the first edition of the book in 2005, he could foresee a world where there was so much abundance that people would increase leave the emptiness of material pursuits behind and focus on the search for meaning. I guess he thought we’d all have so much stuff that we’d learn the error of our ways and turn to matters of the spirit. That didn’t happen so much. Maybe a little, but not so much. Enter recession.

Recession has forced quite a few people to recognize that the house of cards, the pursuit of stuff, and the accumulation of meaningless “wealth” are empty pursuits. They are external to us, and as such, they can never truly satisfy what is inside of us, what is internal. I explained to my son recently that we are just tubes with legs and arms. If we swallow a coin, it goes into our mouths, moves through our digestive systems, and is expelled out the other end…of the tube. “The coin is never truly INSIDE of us,” I explained. “At best, we are all around it, but we never, ever, become one. This is why looking for things outside of us doesn’t make us happy.” He absorbed. He contemplated. He shrugged. “I kind of get it,” he replied.

That’s more than I could have asked of his little brain. He’s a smart kid, and I dig his sensitivity and desire to find truth.

And that is the point I am trying to make. Cheese will move. Real estate markets will crash. Economies will go down in flames. Such is the nature of human, material pursuits. Pursuits of the spirit, those that come from within…those are the ones that will really get us through life. I think my son is really beginning to understand that.

Continue searching for meaning, grasshopper.