Oooops. I almost forgot MEANING

I thought I had already written this... must have dreamt it or something! Anyway... I'm someone who has never been very religious, much to the dismay of my Baptist preacher grandfather. I remember going to church regularly when I was in elementary school, but after that my parents really only made it important on Christmas Eve and Easter, so I appreciated that Pink made a differentiation between religion and spirituality. I do find a lot of meaning throughout the various aspects of my life and I'm someone who, as Pink would say, is spiritual because I have "concern for the meaning and purpose of life," even though I'm not religious.

I really enjoyed the various stations the Meaning group had us go through because each station emphasized different ways of making or finding meaning. When we had to sit and think about ourselves at 90 years old, I immediately thought of this quote from Dr. Robert Firestone in Pink's book:

You're not going to find the meaning of life hidden under a rock written by someone else. You'll only find it by giving meaning to life from inside yourself.

Asking myself questions like "What does your life look like?" and What have you accomplished and contributed?" really got me thinking about how I will create and find meaning in my life from this point on. I would like to think that I would have no regrets at the age of 90 because I will have raised my children as best I could and taught them to be the best people they can be, I have taught my students as best I could and also taught them to be the best people they can be, I have been a positive influence on those around me, and I have continued making art and making the world a more beautiful place with it; if I have done those things, I'll know I have lived a life full of meaning.

The idea of creating meaning is something that relates so completely to teaching and making art. As artists we want to create meaning in our artwork and convey meaning with it, and as teachers we want the art our students are creating to be meaningful to them. While watching all of the curriculum presentations this week I constantly noticed and underlying message of meaning in everything we're wanting to teach our students. Just as Dr. Firestone said when quoted by Pink, we cannot expect anyone else to provide meaning for us, and neither can our students. We have to create it and we have to teach them how to create it.