Saturday, February 16, 2013

What’s It Mean, Alfie?—Part 1



We humans, being the rational and reasoning creatures we think we are, are inclined to look forand even readmeaning into events that happen to us. Less cognizant animals take what comes along and deal with it as best they canwithout examining and probing it, or seeking explanations for why it happened. When a hawk attacks a songbird, the little critter does not fret over why hes being assaulted, or if he is being punished for some transgression he recently committedhe just responds and tries to get the hell out of the way.

Our ability to generate an understanding of the cause and nature of events has given us a huge advantage over all other creatures on this planet. It allows us to learn and to come to comprehend our world like no other being. It has allowed us to become as successful and dominant a species as we are.

Yet this inclination to seek meaning in things also leads us to experience much angst and suffering; as well as leads us astray, when we err in our attempts to explain events. We read things into experiences when often there is no explanation for why they happened. Were uncomfortable not knowing why something occurred, so we make up reasons. We want to believe in continuitywe want to see coherence in life, we want there to be purpose to things. We want to feel that we are in control of our lives or that a greater power is leading us, so things that happen do so for a reason.

If we cant explain the cause for an incident, we will look to something or someone else to describe its message. We seek out a wise person or a guru who can pronounce why it happened. Some of us reason that God has a plan and thus caused this thing to happen, even though we cant grasp why. We might simply conclude that God works in mysterious ways, or that the meaning will come to us in the future. Hang in there, have faith the reason will soon become clear.

The truth is that most of the things that happen to us are not predetermined, nor do they arise because they were the logical result of some earlier event, nor is there a reason for them. Despite our tendency to look for causal relationships and continuity between the past and the present, most occurrences are really coincidental in nature. There simply is no way to foresee them happening. There are so many forces operating beyond our comprehension or control that are at play in our lives, that we cant begin to know what they are or what they do.

More meaning next time

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