Go Where The Veil Is Thin (& Other Lessons In Meaningfulness For This Era)

Believe it or not, you and everyone you know are trying to figure out the meaning of life. But with a little character-building and some help from writer Norah Burke, this is your sign to rethink what meaningfulness actually is.

Since the very beginning, humankind has been caught up in a quest. An adventure – which for some is grand and for others ordinary, for some long-winded and for others startlingly brief – that engages some corner of our souls and through alchemical chemistry, transmutes curiosity into a duty.

The hypothesis that drives this duty is both simple and complicated: What is the meaning of life?

And philosophers – and pirates and poets and pillagers – across time and space have danced to its tune. But before we can even think to explore this hypothesis in this day and age, we must pick a role. In keeping with contemporary times, think of this as a live-action roleplaying game and choose your fighter…

…Are You A Hunter Or A Gatherer?

Whether through nature, nurture, or some combination of the two, we all fall somewhere on the spectrum of hunter or gatherer.

Hunters have three fundamental traits:
1. They are propelled by instinct, following the tell of their gut
2. They are spontaneous and willing to deviate from plans
3. They are able to adapt to new and unusual situations quickly

Gatherers, similarly, have three key characteristics:
1. They are guided by knowledge, letting wisdom lead them
2. They are likely to stick to the known and the planned
3. They are able to find delight and find pleasure in the familiar

Here is the thing, though: Neither is wrong. There is no correct way to find the meaning of life. Indeed, in every epoch, humans invent new lenses with which to perceive this hypothesis. It’s why there is no definitive answer — oops! Spoiler alert!

Are We Unlikely To Find The Meaning Of Life?

No, we aren’t. At least not some objective, one-size-fits-all answer. Which is ironic enough, since we are taught to believe there is.

Whether we find ourselves sorted into hunter or gatherer category, we are told to seek success. That, apparently, is the meaning of life. But if you’re reading this, and you have collected the markers of an apparently successful life, riddle us this: Does a successful life feel meaningful?

And if you are unable to say ‘yes’, or more damningly, if you say meaning translates to the job you are slogging away at or the retirement account you are overworking yourself to fatten, then that is not meaning.

What Makes Life Meaningful?

In her short story, The Poem of all my Days, Norah Burke has a prescription. She says, “When the stress of life is over, each man must seek one thing that is above gold and mortality.”

It sounds so straightforward, does it not? In the story, the protagonist desires to put to the page a poem he insists exists within him, but one he cannot taste. And so he leaves all that he knows behind to seek it out.

And perhaps, in a way, that is the answer. What you seek is within, and you need but a moment, an event, a catalyst to trigger its emergence. You are not a caterpillar looking to become a butterfly; you are the cocoon itself — simply a conduit for your own individual meaningful life.

Maybe this is all too philosophical for your tastes, so let us outline a few guidelines for a meaningful life. Or at least, a few guidelines for meaningful moments in a life that is made noteworthy by something less elusive than success.

Tenpy’s Rules For A Meaningful Life

We’ve already set up the punchline for this list of principles. We already know that each of us seeks meaning in our own way. We are aware that there is no singular or conclusive meaning to life. We have reached the conclusion that meaning goes beyond societal ideas of success.

Keeping that in mind, here are the rules.

Rule #1: Keep your blinders on

Raise your hand if you’ve always looked at what others do or have in order to determine whether or not your life is meaningful. That’s a full house of hands raising the roof, so let’s get this party started by focusing on your own journey.

Whether you are a hunter or a gatherer, look only at what you want out of life to make it more meaningful.

Rule #2: Let your role steer your actions

If you are a hunter, then set out to explore unknown horizons, because it is likely that meaningfulness will make itself known through new experiences. If you are a gatherer, scour the learnings you have hoarded and seek out new subtext.

If you lean into your chosen role, you will discover the password that will snap open the cocoon that has been holding the meaning of your life.

Rule #3: Be the protagonist in your own story

Ultimately, your plot is your own. Your conflicts are of your making. Who supports your mission and what antagonises you are up to you. How you crest the climax and land on a conclusion is your doing.

All we ask is that you let this be your inciting incident for joining humankind’s greatest known crusade. Like the narrator of Burke’s story, you too can “seek celestial truths”.

While he already knew he was searching for the poem within, you may not know your goal as much. Or your may know your goal but feel unprepared or embarrassed to pursue it. Or you may realise that you don’t have a goal at all, but simply wish to assign meaningfulness to fleeting experiences and as such, you need to experience them.

At some point in his narrative, Burke’s narrator makes an offhand comment that these truths “...are to be found not in cities but in silence, where the veil is thin”. If you are mired in the dense ways of metropolitan life, caught up in commutes and corporate rat races, then consider this Tenpy’s rule #4: Hunt or gather a place for yourself where the veil is thin.

This could be among family and friends. This could be finally walking into that cafe or bookshop you always find an excuse to walk past. This could be booking that solo trip you’ve been hesitating to commit to. This could be finally using a recipe you bookmarked ages ago.

The veil is never as thin as it is when you are ready to step out of the simulation and seek the poem – or whatever your pleasure is – of all your days.

At Tenpy, we’ve made an art out of finding and planting roots (and getaways!) in places where the veil is thin. Book a stay at Tiny Norah to experience a weekend beyond gold and mortality: https://tenpy.co/norah