"Writing about the musician Bob Dylan a number of years ago, critic Richard Meltzer observed that Dylan's intention in writing his music was "to free man by rescuing him from meaning, rather than free man through meaning."  If Meltzer is correct, or even if he is not, his observation says volumes about how many people view the concept of meaning.

    It is a view with roots in the late nineteenth century.  When philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that society had, by ignoring God, killed him, he added that, on balance, this was a positive development in humanity's journey.  As God once provided a fulcrum by which we might measure meaning, his absence, Nietzsche suggested, offers people a new way to view such things.  We no longer need "meaning," he noted; we are better served to jettison it altogether.  It restricts our progress, it limits our ken.  It is really not important.

     Better then, per Meltzer on Dylan, to move away from focusing on meaning to instead focus on living in spite of it.

     Fair enough.  However, the notion that we can ignore meaning indicates that we cannot, in truth, live without it.