Do we all have a meaning for others?

[Eddy E]

I really like the quote. How I understand it is that intentionally or unintentionally we all have to encounter people with different characters and attributes, some foreign to us but our ability to be able to accept those and still forge relationships despite the differences is a form of obligation we have to others.

[Rwill0988]

I took the quote to mean that other people view us with certain roles and expectations. For family or friends that role will be bigger but acquaintances and strangers still might put roles and expectations on us as well.
For instance, a person from my neighbourhood used to wait for me to get to the bus stop in the morning because I had a bus tracker and they knew I'd know when the bus was coming. When I was sick one day they missed their bus but I hadn't realized they were doing this.
It is interesting to recognize the meaning we have in other people's lives. However, for certain situations I don't think we have a responsibility to protect these meanings. Should I a good and caring person? Sure. Should I allow my identity or boundaries to be altered to fit someone else's meaning for me? Absolutely not.

[GoodLuck ES]

What I understand from the quote is that people have a perception of us inspired by how we behave. For me, most people see me as resilient and I wake up everyday with a firm resolve to never give up on life and my dreams. That reputation has to be sustained.

[fiocha1996_25]

I loved the quote. We are all somehow affected by people surrounding us, not only the people we are close with but people that we share small moments with and somehow impact our lives. We should always take into consideration that people change people. It's the relationships that we have, the encounters we share, good or bad, that lately help us shape our personality and character.

[Nichole Kurns]

I think that we all have a meaning for others. I believe that we have an impact on the people we encounter. We might not always see or understand our impact on others.

[B Sheila Holt]

We are important to our families and our friends, but we usually never know how we impact others along our daily stroll through life. How did that simple smile at the stranger change their outlook for that afternoon because you noticed them? How was that elderly person’s morning impacted because you helped them carry a bag to their home?

We’re you impacted and changed by that random act of kindness shown to you at the coffee shop? Do people feel good when they let others in various lines ahead of them? How does the person getting that cut in line feel? Special, for that few minutes? Noticed, and like their time mattered?

We all impact each other. I haven’t even touched on all the possibilities of negative impacts out there!!
Let’s just say, it’s nicer to talk about how lives are touched and made better when people interact and are thoughtful to each other. It’s important to make everyone feel appreciated.

[Chelsey Coles]

Speaking for myself, I would like to have meaning for ALL other people. But I know that's impossible. Also, I do not believe we get the luxury of deciding who takes meaning from us. Others will only take meaning if they can and do want to receive it.

[S P]

I think this statement is about recognising the impact our actions and words have on other people, even if those actions or words mean very little to us. Even if we're struggling to find meaning in our own lives, the way we treat other people ends up affecting them and can change the direction of their lives.
Personally I take this to mean that we should try to acknowledge the change we enact in everyone we encounter in life. Even if we can't make life better for everyone in the world, we can change small parts of the world by multiple small good deeds throughout our lives - that's how we have meaning for others, and how we can improve the lives of others.

[Sam Lauren]

I find it accurate. We interact with every single person we see in a day, but we don't give them any thought. Sometimes their meaning isn't very deep for us- like people we pass in the store but do not speak to. If none of those people were there, we'd notice. Others have stronger meaning- my postman delivers my mail and picks up my packages. We rarely speak to each other but we have a symbiotic relationship. Without him I'd have to travel to the post office every day, and so I am grateful that he gives up so much of his free time for the convenience of others.

[Eriny Youssef]

Just by being alive we affect and are affected by others. It's a given. You may affect someone negatively or positively, you may affect them if you know them or if you don't. For example, you affected me with this discussion. Authors and writers have meaning to me. So, I guess being human living with other humans in itself means you mean something to at least someone.

[MayorE]

We all have meaning for others. We might be the reasons some decide to still live. All we have to do is recognize our place in people's lives so we don't place ourselves above where we actually are in their lives

[Adhithya K R]

I really like the quote. How I understand it is that intentionally or unintentionally we all have to encounter people with different characters and attributes, some foreign to us but our ability to be able to accept those and still forge relationships despite the differences is a form of obligation we have to others.

This is an idea that has been discussed by many great minds in the past. Consider Albert Camus' philosophy of absurdism. It dealt with the premise that life is inherently meaningless, giving each individual the freedom to create their own meaning. Viktor Frankl's Man's search for meaning in life too revolved around the same idea.

But looking specifically at this line, whether we have meaning for other people is an interesting idea indeed. In his psychology of individualism, Alfred Adler proposed the idea that we have meaning for other people when we contribute to society in a meaningful way. When we do work that is useful to at least one other person, we change the world. It is not necessary that we need to work. Our very existence fills a space in other people's lives, and that gives our lives meaning.

[Scarbaby]

When I read this quote many feelings and beliefs came to mind. For one, I thought of how important it is to focus on the positive aspects of a person rather than the negative. By appreciating the good things people have contributed to our lives, it only propels us forward in our journey to self-love, enlightenment, and a natural state of bliss.

[angelanikkicea]

I love this statement. I think what this pertains to is that we all have the ability to impact the decisions and lives of the people around us and the people we encounter.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

This was the exact quote that jumped out at me of being my favorite quote! It can mean so many different things. I think we have to look deep into ourselves and the people around us to appreciate what we have around us. We take things for granted and when it comes down to it, it is the little things we do for others that are the most meaningful. I strongly believe that we all (no matter how small) have a meaning for every single person we meet in life. Weather it be a smile, a handshake, a word of advice, an eye roll, a reaction , the list goes on and on. These are deep thinking and meaningful quotes

Quite true. There are many ways through which we can interact with people. And those things can have a great meaning for the others, meanings that are very much greater than that we expect such gestures to impart. Think about a simple smile with a poor and a neglected fellow. It can be like winning a whole world for him/her and with that you might have given him/her a grrat value and you, yourself might have earned a great meaning. The meaning of yourself can emerge in such unexpected ways and in unexpected amounts like that.