chapter 13

What is the meaning of life?  When a student is absent from class, usually they will come up and approach you the next day and ask you what they missed from the previous class.  And sometimes, because I am pretty sarcastic, I will say something like, “oh, we didn’t do too much; I just explained the meaning of life to everyone, no big deal, just get the notes from someone later.”  Sometimes I get a laugh and sometimes they look at me like I am crazy. 

I guess the students that actually find humor in this understand the joke.  As discussed in Corey and Corey (2010), we may never actually find out the meaning of life in our entire lifetimes, let alone from a 40 minute biology class.  I specifically enjoyed reading the foundations of meaning (pg. 379).  I really thought highly of some of the quotes.  For example, Wilma Mankiller’s quote made a lot of sense to me.  She basically stated that we need to live in harmony with every other living thing.  We also need to understand the interconnectedness of living things and accept our role in life.  What I took from this quote is that in order to understand what the meaning of life is for us, we need to accept who we truly are.  We need to be able to identify our strengths and weaknesses.  Maya Angelou adds the fact that just when she thinks she knows the answer to life, she realizes that she doesn’t really know anything.  We are always in constant change, and just when we think we have everything figured out, we need to realize that the ideas that we hold are always subject to change.  We also need to understand what Thomas E. O’Connor said in that we always have a choice in what we can create.  It’s up to us to become all that we can become.  We have a choice in life, and I think it’s great that the ideas we read about in the first chapter came full circle back to us at the end of the book. 

            The other main idea that can help us try to decipher the meaning of life is the idea of incorporating a value system.  In Corey and Corey’s (2010) Chapter 13, I enjoyed reading over the value reflection questions (pg. 385).  I do live my life congruent with the religion and spirituality that I profess.  Also, I truly believe that my values have helped me better understand life and death.  While I will never know for sure what’s in store for me in the future, I strongly believe that if I work hard, it will pay off for me.  I may not get an instant reward, but I will reap some benefits if not later in my life, in the afterlife.  Because of this belief, I am able to cope with the idea that “everything happens for a reason.”  This statement is what really pushes me to be the best that I can and to try to make a difference in the world.    

 

Corey, G., & Corey, M.S. (2010). I never knew I had a choice: Explorations in personal growth. (9th ed.) Belmont, California: Thompson Brooks/Cole.