Maybe in the course of life, there are only 3 interdependent pieces.

1. What Is

2. Interpretation of What Is

3. What’s Done

It’s been said that you can’t change other people, and you can’t change your circumstances – all you can change is your reaction. If you apply that rule here, it dictates that the meaning of life doesn’t actually change, but that interpretation does.

What Is – meaning the truth, whether visible or unknown – is the most powerful influence on What’s Done. Despite the appearance of a strictly linear relationship, the truth is that all 3 of these elements are made up of the same stuff. They rely on one another through their differences.

The necessity of Interpretation of What Is coexisting with those two, is the very definition of humanity. We need to make sense of our world. The mind is said to create structure, even where there is none available. It builds relationships among our experiences.

And why not? Even if Interpretation of What Is leads us down arbitrary paths, to arbitrary conclusions, we can still see that it answers a need. And every time an Interpretation of What Is happens, it’s recorded in the universe, and therefore alters a little bit of What Is.

What’s Done seems fairly independent. It doesn’t seem invisible enough to be recorded in What Is. After all, What’s Done is perhaps a direct creation of What Is. And I can’t find much to convince me that Interpretation of What Is has a major influence over What’s Done. The most animalistic and inevitable of the three, What’s Done is often attributed to an Interpretation of What Is. All I seem to be able to do is strongly suspect that 100% of What’s Done can be attributed to What Is. I can’t make much argument for it. It’s a gut feeling, and it’s a big one.

Despite the fact that there have been as many Interpretations of What Is as there have been humans in the entire history of the planet, we each start from scratch. And I myself have built my own Interpretations of What Is. In my quest, I have integrated the templates of others and found that they suit some (but not all) of my needs.

Try as I may, I cannot find What Is. I cannot put my finger on it. All I can find are its Interpretations.

And this is where it gets strange. I believe that my best course of action is to focus my eye on What’s Done. I believe that Step 2 can be considered a table leaf; Steps 1 and 3 are fully functional, with or without it. What’s Done, however, appears to me a cornerstone - unchanging and mostly unchangeable. Since Step 1 eludes me, I draw my horizon by the one element that makes itself available to me.

Why has it been so easy before to rationalize that if I can find the most accurate or actionable Interpretation of What Is, then I will have the key to unlocking What’s Done? Possibly because that’s been a popular Interpretation of What Is. And accuracy and actionability aside, Interpretation of What Is should not be discounted.  After all, my family can eat at any size table, but I can’t invite my friends to eat unless the leaf is in. It is the only element of my table that I can implement at will.

Here’s another way of looking at it. If What Is can be represented by Absolute Truth, then What’s Done can be represented as Evidence of Absolute Truth, and Interpretation of What Is then takes the form, Response to the Evidence of Absolute Truth.

Absolute Truth contains and authors the history of mankind. Response to the Evidence of Absolute Truth rewrites the section of our history entitled “Mankind’s Response to Absolute Truth.” These responses vary widely, and implement themselves very powerfully into the history of life.

Now, imagine instead that What’s Done is characterized by a block of ice. It is the solidification of all the H2O molecules available to it. It makes the strongest argument for the existence of H2O because it has the most pronounced characteristics of any H2O embodiment. And if What’s Done indeed comes from What Is, then What Is can best be compared to water. It is the richest and most essential embodiment of H2O.

When water develops pockets of activity, it can create enough energy to form a third embodiment. Steam, which is eerily similar to Interpretation of What Is, is the direct product of an H2O group which has become so dynamic that it was unable to restrain itself as water. When you want to make steam from ice, you won’t be able to do it without the steam passing through a momentary water phase. Similarly, Interpretation of What Is encompasses all the major elements of life when it is drawn from What’s Done, because What’s Done is a direct product of What Is.

Embracing the Interpretation of What Is – putting the leaf in the center - is really an invaluable pursuit. It will create a distance between What Is and What’s Done, and simultaneously fill it. Instead of interrupting their reliance on one another, you effectively use them to create potential.

It’s not hard to find natural indications of the supernatural. These metaphors have illustrated 3 different items each composed of the same organic makeup. Identical H2O molecules, a single plank of wood, the consistency that defines absolute truth – each one like its own compact holy trinity. 

Birth, Life, and Death, in that order. Birth causes Death, and so Death is the most reliable evidence of Birth. Life does not create Birth. Life is evidence of the meaning of Birth and of Death, between whom it simultaneously creates a gap, and fills it.