We live in a world that has been systematically dismantling many of the sources of meaning in life. Where once we had community, we now have social networks full of outrage and tribalism; the village now replaced with the nuclear family, food halls and strip malls; eldership with the retirement home; our place in the web life replaced with an extractive relationship to Earth. We’re encouraged to find meaning in our status, our possessions and accomplishments, but meaning is always something that lives in relationship to others.

There’s something inherently developmental about meaning. I’m referring to a specific type of growth that happens in living beings in which the agent-arena relationship and the ability to find an optimal grip on the world is improved. Development in this sense is inherently “trans-formative”: in order to grow and develop, the “form” must change, but there is also a sense of “trans” – moving between worlds, from the world you inhabit today into another in which the agent-arena relationship is altered, and in which a different set of affordances are available.