Assignment 3; Many views on Meaning and Wisdom

Strangers, Family, and Friends all have different views on the meaning of life. People seem to see it along the same lines on what is or is not meaningful. Almost all the people I've talked to say that family is a very meaningful part of life, one or two add that "human connection or being part of the larger community" is also something that is meaningful as well. When asked what made family, or friends so meaningful to them, a middle aged man said that it was because of everything that they have shared together and how they supported each other and just the love, which was along the same lines of 1/4th of the people I have asked had said. They found their lives to be pretty meaningful, people who were able to scale the meaning in their lives all said it was a 7-10 based on what they found was meaningful. The people who felt that they have fulfilled or already had what they thought was meaningful in their lives tended to think their lives were more meaningful. I thought this was interesting because one lady we met who was walking her dog said something that connected to this point. We had asked her whether she viewed her life as more meaningful than someone else's and she said that while happiness and security was meaningful to her life everyone needs different things to fulfill them and because of that it's up to them to determine. When viewed in this way meaning is something that is subjective because it is a personal matter.

2/8ths of the people interviewed mentioned goals as something they found as meaningful because it gave them a feeling of accomplishment and having goals and reaching those goals were rewarding. I thought about this and if meaning is viewed in goals, you would never be completely have a “10” on the meaning scale because you are always striving to reach that goal, but once you’ve reached it your done, and you no longer have a goal because it is complete. I think goals are good, so if meaning were to be defined like this, a person must constantly make new goals for themselves to reach.

A small consensus of people found that catty people who judge other people were a meaningless part of life, because it was an unimportant aspect of life and getting caught up in "quintessential human drama" (Guy with bike) which is like the catty people comment since that is part of the "quintessential human drama". Another consensus of an equal amount came to the conclusion that money was meaningless because quote "it screws things up" (Guy on Ipod).

A pattern I noticed is that what makes someone happy is a part of what they think is meaningful, because why not, if we are to eventually die, why not die happy? It is something that is ingrained in modern life, the search for happiness, as well as in our constitution (John Adams). That is part of the reason family and friends are part of what we find is meaningful in our lives, because they make us happy and that's why I think people had said that.