that common unity

Meaning.
Like air to our bodies, meaning brings life to our souls. for without meaning we, as people, stumble aimless, listless, fruitless through the muck and mire of existence without respite. Like heavy clothes and warm hearth meaning rescues us from simply 'being' and allows us to truly flourish.

Meaning.
Since earliest days we have striven for greater meaning, It seems we define ourselves our very personhood by what we mean to those who are important to us. (Ah, but there is a thought, 'those who are important to us'. already we are assigning meaning, but on what grounds? for surely they are no more than we allow them to be? this is one egg that refuses to acknowledge the chicken from whence is most likely came. but I digress) From the very youngest seeking the approval and affirmation of their parents to the oldest seeking out the very faintest trace of themselves reflected in the face of our successors. We all want to know that we mean something to someone.

Meaning.
It seems a deep soul hunger that binds us all, keeps us in constant search of communion, it is in fact that common union that separates us from other sentient beings on the this planet. but, like most of our instinctive urges, meaning is a poor servant and a horrific master. we mask it, dress it up, disguise it to protect our pride or rename it to soothe our bewildered social consciousness. or, greater crime yet, we wield it, one against another.

Meaning.
it is baffling to see those for whom meaning, belonging, knowing oneself and being known has meant so much turn and use it weapon against those who have not yet found their own selfness. we manipulate our meanings to isolate the weak, oppress the defenseless and harangue the distressed. we, the civilised masses, have canabalised ourselves, feeding upon our own sense of superiority. our own sense of what. we. mean. to. our. selves.  

of course these are merely the observations of one and need not be the experience of the many. but it is my experience that the need to mean transcends the geographical. and so I urge caution. I propose that if we never mean more than what we see in the mirror, if we never mean something greater than our finest accoutrements, if we never mean something loftier than our accumulated wealth. then we mean nothing at all.