Give up meaning for Lent
It’s Lent. What are you going to give up? Alcohol? Chocolate?
My intention is to post a few thoughts on giving up meaning for Lent.
King Solomon in his quest for wisdom (spiritual journey?) arrives at a place of meaninglessness and maybe – giving up meaning is the central aspect to the spiritual journey.
The idea of meaning can be thought of as something that has direction and moves toward an ideal. Something that is meaningful touches upon the sacred, the pure, and creates purpose - right?
We might then think that spirituality would be intertwined with an embrace of meaning. It would provide us with a common purpose to move toward such as peace, justice, or redemption. But we may fail to recognize that this pursuit of meaning is built on a background of dualistic thinking, and creates divisions between the present and the future, the innocent and the guilty, in-groups and out groups, religion, and science, and the sacred and secular.
So, the pursuit of meaning may divide rather than unify and may contribute to violence and enmity rather than leading us to love.