Five Meanings is a book about the meaning of life.
I’ve spent the past couple years in an earnest attempt to answer some deep questions that we all face:
- Why are we here?
- What is the meaning of life?
- How do I, Adam, fit into all of this?
I do my very best to explain how humanity fits into the big picture of the universe. Through introspection and examination of the natural world, I show how the universe created us to be creators.
I look at one human’s purpose in the broad landscape of humanity, and why we find deep purpose in creating things for the rest of society to enjoy.
I look at the order of our universe, our society, and our individual abilities, and show how they are naturally linked.
I’m just a man who wants to share some things I’ve learned with the rest of society, in the hopes that it helps a few people. I have no desire to become a motivational speaker, and you will never hear me shout, “I can’t hear you!” after “Good morning!” into a microphone.
I wrote this all down because I needed to. We’ve all been to dark places. People we love die. Bad things happen. Sometimes though, if we’re lucky, we bring back good ideas from the dark place.
I’ve been writing for thirty years, with boxes of notebooks tucked away in corners of my closet, garage, and attic. But writing this book was different. It changed my life. I thought, wrote, and revised for over two years. I did that work for myself, with no intent to publish it. My sanity required the process. At the end though, I felt the work was worth sharing.
This could be considered a self-help book. Does the world really need another one?
There are already thousands of books about how you should live. There are guidebooks that lead the reader through exercises designed to discover their passion. There are books on forming habits and breaking habits. There are business books on starting up, growing up, failing up, and selling out. I have read a lot of them. So, so many. A lot of these books are very helpful, but they all share the same thread—they focus on how a person should live. They give tips and recipes for living a better life. Cookbooks, basically.
This is not a cookbook. It precedes the question of how to do something. It tries to understand why we should do anything at all. If an average self-help book is a stroll through town on your lunch break, this one is a month-long vision quest in the forest. But it doesn’t rely on mysticism, just reasoning. Feel free to read it in a sweat lodge though. I certainly sweated a lot writing it.
Thanks for reading.
