The True Meaning of Life is Relationship

“My great-grandma grew up during the Great Depression. She married a man her family didn’t like, they disinherited her, turned out he was a violent drunkard (I only found out a few weeks ago; she never talked to it, though as you’ll see, it helps make sense of a lot of things). …  Her home was filled with crocheted and knitted blankets, toys, hats, doll clothes. She gave them to families in need, secretly. Not a single child from a poor family in her neighborhood, for miles around, was without a colorful winter hat and gloves. She made sure they were renewed when they wore out or were lost. Kids who liked dolls had dainty, lace-like doll clothes. … My great-grandma always said she did it because we were all in it together. Maybe it’s easier to understand when you know the crushing poverty, abandonment, violence, and terror of a tall, strong drunkard of a husband she had, while trying to raise eight children. Alone and sabotaged by abuse. … Your priorities change when you’ve lived through soul-crushing experiences, whatever they may be. You realize that the stories told to us that lead to stratification and hierarchization, of “value” and “objectives” and all those illusions narrated to keep us striving and thinking that generosity and altruism are “creepy”, are chaff on the wind. That the true meaning of life is relationship. And that there will always be people who haven’t yet understood that; whose need to believe in that grand, privileged value society has given them is more important than seeing the love around them.”

Happiness Happens | MetaFilter.


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