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A reflection on recursive meaning-making: declaring that something has no point or significance can itself become another interpretation layered onto what happened.

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Meaninglessness Can Become Another Meaning

Meaning-making has a recursive trick. We can notice that we are adding meaning to an event and then add a new meaning about having added meaning. The same happens with meaninglessness. Nothing matters. There is no point. This is insignificant.

Those statements can feel like the absence of interpretation. They are still interpretations.

That does not make them wrong. It makes them visible as conclusions rather than empty space. The distinction matters because meaninglessness can quietly become as rigid as the meaning it replaced. We stop believing one story and immediately install another story called no story.

A cleaner inquiry is to stay closer to the event. What happened? What am I saying it means? What am I saying it does not mean? What changes if neither conclusion has to become the event itself? Meaning can be added. So can the claim that there is none. Seeing both gives us a little more room.

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