Thank you for never editing my work. You may think that’s not true because you are my brain, my conscience, my fears, loves and aspirations. All these things, and yet you let me fall, fail and sometimes virtually shoot myself in the foot. It is in this freedom that you are a superb editor. Call it licence, present it as respect, mean it to be honour, your gift isn’t permission, it is a freedom that says ‘you are a Human Special’. As a young man that meant I was in search of myself. Later it became a need to provide, then a wish to love. I cannot write the ‘finally’ as I am not yet final. When I am, I hope I shall discover that ‘meaning’ always was the goal.
Just meaning.
Looking at the teachers, role models, guides and mentors I have known, it delights me to see that they were flawed. In fact, the three great priests I knew all had their failures. All three found and gave meaning. It extends beyond priests, of course. Some people with hatred carved into their souls managed the despair of disgust until it became tame enough to entertain delight. But meaning has to be turned into action. Might a search for what we mean refer us back to an editor for instructions? If as with you, my Editor, they are fortunate, their editors won’t rise to it.
Purpose is me, not a navigational chart round a besieged island.
If purpose is for me to establish, what are the criteria I should use to ensure that my purpose is meaningful? How am I, or even you as Editor, to judge my successes and failures? After all, we have no real historical models except mystical deities or great-for-their-time prophets. And we know, better than any generation before us, how fast time changes. A prophet who didn’t have AI may have been great. S/He wasn’t very tech savvy. How could their ‘meaning’ be an addition to humanity?
If we are to find an answer – now or ever – we must agree on some common objectives. We don’t have any yet. For some it is survival, for others power, for many wealth. These are all tactical activities, to achieve what is not clear. Communal objectives are strategic. They demand vision not only for self but also for the world and for the future. No shortage of those, you may say. Climate, hatred, war and immortality – now widely recognised as a primary objective. Above all, personal happiness. Do we really think that we are addressing some or all of those at present? Future generations will gasp at the increasing stupidity of human endeavour.
If it is not my job, then whose is it? Churches thought it was theirs, and failed. Politicians assumed they had it under control. With a massive vote in Britain for a political candidate called Binface, I don’t need to answer that. The tech experts see possible conquest. The price? Likely extermination of human thought. The Star Seekers? Binface will have a lot of clearing up to do.
It is my job and yours too. Meaningfulness provides depth; Purpose provides clarity. When they converge, we experience not just what we are living for, but why it matters.
I beseech you, please make it matter today.
Good morning
John Bittleston
A good start would be your resolve. We’d love to hear it at [email protected].
15 August 2026
