By Anonymous
In a discussion about determining life's calling, we came to a crossroads of paradigms.
Some proposed life's calling is best viewed as a matter of existing. The idea being that we make our life's calling at the margins, with every decision we make. Other's proposed a forward view. Positing life's calling has to do with our relationship to the future. Some mentioned a view similar to the one Steve Job's espoused with his famous quote about connecting the dots looking backwards to determine the path going forward. This position is still future facing but elevates the role of the past.
However, there was one paradigm which was offer which was very different, and which I found sufficiently interesting to write about here.
The paradigm was simple: wait to the very end, analyze and assess the totality of your journey then AND ONLY THEN assign meaning.
It was fascinating in that, this completely shirks the importance of the present moment and the future. It also offers a different way to think about the meaning making process in the human mind. Rather than follow meaning, meaning is applied. This also seems to imply that there need not have been a pattern in one's life, that you can create the pattern retroactively.
There is also an interesting practical psychological benefit to this philosophy: many of us struggle with trying to determine a pattern to our lives or determining a path forward. With this approach, those concerns can be laid to rest. And good thing is, it is very difficult to avoid this benefit: If there is no pattern to our lives, we will only determine that at the end, saving us a life time of frustration, in exchange for a short period of disappointment. If there is a pattern, we will discover it and be happy at the end (or to the degree which we can make the pattern, we will do so and again be happy in the end).