wisdom from the pages of a $2 book
Have you ever performed a small spontaneous act that went on to be surprisingly meaningful?
My partner is a man of many hobbies. At present his passion is tabletop gaming and painting the figurines to play these games. This is the resurrection of a beloved passion from his youth which perhaps, as we both find ourselves with more time for leisure, has room to blossom once more.
It is a passion of many parts - 3D printers, figurines, models of buildings, models of terrain, rule books (lots and lots of rule books), game mats, paints, brushes, more paints and more brushes. A lot of SPACE for all the paints, brushes, figurines, buildings, terrain, game mats, books… you get the idea.
With this hobby comes a need for paint. This has translated into us making the odd trip down to Ferntree Gully to The Famous Arthur Daley’s warehouse. I have no knowledge of who Mr. Daley was or how he became "famous", but I imagine that much like the country bakeries that have “award winning” vanilla slice, Mr. Daley’s claim to fame is never thoroughly investigated.
Anyhoo, Mr. Daley is an importer of a vast array of questionable items. Plastic kitchenware, fistfuls of unnaturally coloured fake flowers, tacky tchotchkes of ravens nesting on dragons sitting on skulls - but despite the aisles of hastily curated #landfillcore Mr. Daley does indeed have a great selection for the hobbyist painter. Paints, brushes, canvases, boards, easels, pencils, watercolours, charcoal, art diaries, sculptors clay and numerous associated tools. You name it, Mr. Daley provides.
It was on one of these hum drum trips that I wandered into the book section of The Famous Arthur Daley's to browse an extremely motley collection of books from authors who perhaps had not found the fame Mr. Daley enjoyed. At $2 each you could choose from a selection of arcane textbooks on Egyptology, even more arcane religious texts, self-published romance novels, poorly bound reproductions of medieval texts printed from scanned pages, or… weighty Oxford textbooks titled “Exotic Preferences : Behavioural Economics and Human Motivation”.
It was this title that (much to my surprise) caught my attention enough that I picked it up, scanned the blurb, and threw it on the counter amongst the five different shades of white my partner had selected. I figured that for less than a cup of coffee I might learn something.
This book has made me laugh. Yes, laugh out loud. It has made me think. It has made me learn new things like the economic theory of Utility and Intertemporal Choice. It has articles that cover fascinating topics like The Psychology of Curiosity and Risk as Feelings and Bias in the Prediction of Tastes. But the most surprising article I have read so far is The Economics of Meaning. One of the threads within the article talks of how we seek out meaning to help make sense of our experience of life, and it was this discussion that struck me the most.
In the myriad tasks I perform each day, it is the time I spend making that provides me with meaning.
When I asked myself why I find meaning in creating, many reasons came to mind. I find meaning in the physicality of seeing an idea - something that previously existed only in my mind - come to life. I find meaning in the process of design. I find great meaning in challenging myself with questions like “What is it that I really like in a garment?”, “How can I make this garment last?”, “Who do I see wearing this garment now and in the future?” or even more esoteric - “What could this garment say and to whom? Can I make it mean something more than just a pretty thing to wear?".
These questions help me uncover what’s important to me and in so doing help guide my choices. They help me understand how good design asks me to consider bigger realities like the situation of individuals, society, the economy and the environment. These questions help me make choices that will have a tiny (but nevertheless meaningful to me) positive impact in these spheres. I design my garments to be a physical manifestation of the things I find to be meaningful. In creating them, I am giving form to my meaning and purpose to my days.
But finding meaning need not just be about creative output. That is just my version of meaning. What is yours?
Where do you find meaning? How can you uncover what is important to you and then use it to guide your decisions and actions day-to-day? Perhaps you find meaning in acts of kindness, because in a world that can seem random and unkind you can actively choose to be kind. Perhaps you find meaning in the wonderful company that you keep, because although you know you are ultimately just one person, choosing to invest your time with like-minded people greatly amplifies your joy. Perhaps you find meaning in the simple act of asserting free will to enact positive change, because you know that to choose action is to not give in to apathy and fate, but instead feel empowered in knowing that what you do makes a difference to you and those you love.
Who would have guessed I would find all of this from a $2 book from The Famous Arthur Daley’s?
In the end I feel that finding meaning is just another way of creating hope. Exercising our individual agency to bring joy to those we love, creates hope for friends and family. Making positive choices that represent who we are and who we strive to be, creates hope for society. Surrounding ourselves with people who share our values and lift us up, creates hope for humanity. And remaining optimistic and not losing out to apathy and inaction? Well that creates hope for the future.
But in the end, finding meaning in life needn’t be world changing - just life-changing. A single life. Our own.
Stay curious and beautiful,
Meg.
