Life and living didn’t mean anything before the big bang and it’s not going to mean anything when the big bang reverses and the whole universe sits on the head of a pin.
It was empty and meaningless before we were born, and it will be empty and meaningless after we stop living.
There’s only meaning when we’re talking. Human beings, you and I, give meaning to anything and everything and we do it using language. Dogs and deer and cats; they come into heat, then have sex and then have puppies, kittens & fawns. But humans we fall in love, make love and create families.
We fornicate, copulate, have sex, fuck, procreate, etc etc. and the poetic part all happens in the story. All constructed by our using language.
We make up stories for everything and it conceals we are just doing the same thing that every animal does. We can spin magnificent, glamorous to tragic stories about our multiplication and anything and everything else. Babies are what happens and then there is the story about the whole thing.
It just like that for everything else in life. Shit happens and we make up stories about it. Stories with great significance and drama. Unless you are Colombo, the TV series investigator who insisted on: “Just the facts ma’am”. We are more fascinated with ma’am’s story rather than the who-done-it. We want the “WHY?” they did it. The story behind it.
Philosophers, theoretical mathematicians and physicists attempt to answer the great mysteries in life. Once in a while they get an answer and yet, while that is a great and noble game to play, we don’t seem to notice that the answers to their questions aren’t going to make any difference. Once we know if the chicken or the egg came first (and they do claim they just figured it that one out); it isn’t going to make any difference in the quality of our lives. It didn’t mine now that I know (it’s the chicken), did it for you?
Obviously, the story does not give us access to life and living. It is a report from the stands about what is going on down there on the playing field.
What does that have to do with the being of a leader and the effective exercise of leadership? Stay tuned for the rest of the story. In the meantime I invite you to distinguish when you are in the stands with some full-of-meaning story or you are on-the-court where the game is being played. More to come.
Besides, what does empty and meaningless got to do with it? It become a very powerful distinction.
You will see.