In order to identify our unique selves (in theistic terms – soul prints) and to respond to the voices that call us to meaning we need to first experience the world as meaningful. One of the great cries of modernity is that it all seems to be a house of mirrors. The image of the house of mirrors indicates our feeling that there is no core essence in the world; rather all is a grand joke, an illusion, a house of mirrors in a cruel carnival. Life too often seems absurd. Nothing really matters. Absurdus’ means “fully deaf” in Latin. So often we moderns, strain mightily and often vainly, to hear the call or sense the innate purpose of being.

I believe that any thoughtful person has house of mirror moments, maybe even house of mirror years. In the end however life is a decision for meaning. There are only two choices in life. Either everything is meaningful or nothing is meaningful. If choosing to be Mother Teresa instead of Hitler is meaningful then everything is meaningful. If remembering my son’s birthday matters then everything matters.

Marc Gafni