Making Meaning With Open Eyes

Nietzsche said that old sources of value, such as a fixed order handed down by religion, had lost their grip. That left a danger: drifting into “nothing matters.” But he also saw a task. If values are made by people, then we can make them on purpose.

This lesson turns his task into two steps. The first is honesty. Ask where a value came from: family, habit, fear, admiration. Some will survive the question and some will not. The second step is to choose what you will stand behind and to live by it, knowing that it is yours and not simply found.

This is harder than inheriting a rule. You cannot blame the universe for your values. But a value you have tested and chosen can hold you up better than one you never looked at.

The family rule

Ada grew up in a family that said, “We never ask for help.” She follows the rule and is burning out at work.

She asks where it came from. Her grandparents were poor and proud, and the rule kept them from shame. She decides to keep the part about self-respect and drop the part about never asking. She tells her family it is her rule now.

Try this today Write one value you live by, and one reason you chose it rather than inherited it.