What We Mean When We Talk About Meaning

What we mean when we talk about meaning graphic

Searching for meaning (in life) is not the same thing as doing something meaningful (today).

The former is a philosophical exercise, the latter is done through action.

Here’s why.

“Meaning” is a noun.

Nouns are hefty. We put both proverbial and literal weight to nouns because we presume they are specific things we can see, touch, or collectively identify. Rocks, burritos, voltage, and Copenhagen all fit in that category.

But then there are nouns like joy, God, soul, love, and meaning. But these are emotive nouns, an almost sixth human sense. They are personal and intellectual. States of mind. Neuronic. It’s the difference between feeling something with your hands and feeling something “in your bones.”

That’s why we circle these nouns endlessly in debate; only able to describe them with metaphors, analogies, and subjective you-just-had-to-be there-s.

So how do we find meaning?

That’s where meaningful comes in to help. It’s our philological bridge to meaning, because while meaning is an intimidating singular noun, meaningful is an adjective to many possible nouns. That, on the surface, should alleviate some pressure, but we still need to look under the hood because meaningful isn’t your normal…