Do we all have a meaning for others?

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I really liked the quote. We all definitely mean something to other people. This kind of relationships are often taken for granted but it is advisable to always appreciate other people that are important to you and those that are always there for you.

I agree. We do not understand the value or the importance of many relationships that we have until we loose them. We don't see the meaning of those relationships because we have gained them without any effort and we take them for granted. Imagine a fellow with no one to look up for. How miserable he/she should be feeling. We never feel like that because we are surrounded by many that have a great meaning and a great connection to us. So we should appreciate such people and in return we should maintain our meaning and purpose for them as well.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

This is a very true quote. Although we do not always realise it, we actually mean a lot to other people. That is why it is important to sometimes just say something kind or have a nice gesture with somebody. It can mean so much to the other person, even if it is for us just a small detail!

Think of someone who is sad because he/she has been unsuccessful in something and has been rejected. Think that you are the only one that sees the effort that he/she has put behind that even he/she failed. And out of empathy, you just give him/her a courageous smile. You may never know how meaningful that you would have been to him/her and what a great thing that you have done. If you were at the receiving end only you would have understood that. So, it is important to give a great value and care for each of your interactions with others, because you may never know how meaningful that can be.

[John Owen]

We all have meaning for other people, and we need to do a stronger job of protecting that and recognizing that.

This is a quote from this book that caught my attention. What do you think about this statement? Does it mean that we all have a meaning for all the others, or we all have a meaning for some of the others? Do we all actually have a meaning for others? If so, what do you think about yourself? What is the meaning of yourself to others or the world? Was it difficult to recognize it? Are you working on to protect it?

Yes! We all have [bold]our[bold] meaning for others. It all depends on our interpretation of each other, and attitudes. For example, I may view someone as successful yet another person views the same person as a failure. It also depends on how deep we know the person, the experiences you've had together and a whole lot of other things.

[John Owen]

This quote is very accurate and we all indeed have meaning for other people. It is very possible that each of us are someone’s reason to live. At times, people look at out lives for motivation and we need to do a better job of protecting the people who need us. This can be done by continuously working on ourselves and trying to improve in all areas of our lives. We should all spread love. Pure and beautiful love.

We should all spread love. Pure and beautiful love.

I love this line from you and I agree with it too. It is also true that it has to start with us- as you've said, "continuously working on ourselves and trying to improve on all areas of our lives." We are the ones who can control those around us, especially the ones who matter to us by first controlling ourselves.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

We all have meaning for other people, and we need to do a stronger job of protecting that and recognizing that.

This is a quote from this book that caught my attention. What do you think about this statement? Does it mean that we all have a meaning for all the others, or we all have a meaning for some of the others? Do we all actually have a meaning for others? If so, what do you think about yourself? What is the meaning of yourself to others or the world? Was it difficult to recognize it? Are you working on to protect it?

It's a lovely quote. According to me, the author wants to convey that we are special and important to some people, and we need to first of all realize that we do matter to someone and secondly we have to work on it strongly and continously to protect that feeling of others for us.

That is correct. There are moments that we feel like no one needs us or nobody cares about us. But this quote reminds us that there are people to whom we matter a lot, and we have to identify them. Then we have to work to keep and enhance our identity that those people prefer

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think the quote is addressing the fact that a lot of people nowadays take friends and family, loved ones, etc. for granted. And people who have self-esteem issues especially have a very difficult time recognizing how much they mean to the people around them. Thus they don't realize how much they can hurt their loved ones when they don't take care of themselves or when they hurt themselves.

That is very true. Many people live with a very low self esteem. When this state go to a level which is irreversible in usual ways, we identify that as an illness. With or without illness, this low self esteem will lead people to care less about or harm to themselves. But the thing is that there are people who actually care about them and ultimately they are the ones who suffer. Everyone has to understand that as a fact

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think it can be interpreted in a number of ways. However, I think that every person we meet in life has some influence on us, whether good or bad. I would also point out that not all persons have the same influence nor the same significance. Some people are a big part of our lives and we have to make an effort to maintain and improve relationships with people like that.

Each and everyone may not have the same or a big impact or influence on us. Still we have to keep in mind that each and everyone has a meaning for us. And that is true in the other way round as well. So we have to identify the meaning of others towards us, and at the same time we have to identify our own meaning towards them as well

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I didn't like the quote because I don't quiet get it. It would have been sound to me if it said we are all responsible for each other.

That is another way to interpret the quote. Personally I believe that our actions make us liable to certain things and whatever the things we do, we should be ready to accept the responsibility.

But then what about the people that have an influence in us without doing anything, but just being themselves. Then there occurs a problem regarding responsibility. That is why it is more suitable to put it as 'meaning'

[Sushan Ekanayake]

We touch the lives of the people we encounter.
The impact that we create may differ from person to person. Because of this, we should always be mindful of how we conduct ourselves so the impact that we leave are always meaningful.

I totally agree with you on this. Our words and appearance have an amazing power to affect the people we meet. It is possible to save a stranger’s day with a smile and just a few friendly words. Some encounters have such strong impact on us that we remember them for a long time, even if we never meet the same person again.

Yes. There are people that who we met for only once, only for few seconds. Maybe they have done almost nothing other than treating us with a simple smile. Yet we have them in our minds forever. That is not because of anything else, but because what they gave us was the most primitive need of ours at that particular moment.

So you can do this in reverse as well. No matter how small your action is, just do it. It may have a great meaning and a great influence on the receiving party.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Do we have a meaning for others? My interpretation of this is what are we to people. Have you had an impact on someone? Can someone describe your importance in their lives depending on how you treated them or how you cared for them.

Exactly. If someone can interpret you as a helpful person, that is the meaning that you gained from doing certain things for him/her. At the same time, if someone interprets you as a bad person, that is another meaning that you gained from doing different sort of things. People give you identities depending on what you do and that is the meaning of you relative to them

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Do we all have meaning for others?

This seems like a legit question. We all are supposed to have a purpose and meaning in life yet most of us are wandering aimlessly. I think we all have a certain amount of meaning in each other's life which helps us to find our own meaning of life. Through the search for meaning for others, we are able to understand ourselves in a better way.

That is very much applicable to today's society. It is not the problem that we not having a meaning, but many of us not recognising our true meaning and the purpose and wasting our lives. One should look for self awareness and self importance and that will be a help to anyone to identify their meanings to others. We all should work towards that goal

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I love this quote. I believe there are different reasons why people enter our lives or why we enter people's lives. The thing is to recognize it and appreciate it. We shouldn't take for granted the people we opportuned to meet in our everyday lives.

I believe the same. There are no random acts or random meetings. Everything has a purpose. What we do to others and what they do to us, all these have a meaning. What we fail to do most often is being unable to recognize them. Hence, everyone has a meaning to others.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I love this quote. I resonate with it when it says we have a meaning for everyone in the world and we should protect it. In addition to that, I also feel that our meaning to each individual changes over time and we should work to preserve that, as and when the time demands. It is evident even in obvious relationships like that of a spouse, a parent etc.

We have obvious, yet very important relationships with our parents, siblings, spouses. What we do not understand is that the need to refresh them once in a while and maintain them. Most of us take them for granted and never give the necessary attention to their maintenance. So we should keep the importance of such relationships and our meaning to them, and try to maintain as well as improve it

[Sushan Ekanayake]

The way I interpret it, it means we all have significance to other people. Everything we do, even the slightest things we do, have an impact to other people’s lives. I think the quote wants to remind people that we should remember that we are all important to somebody even if we’re not aware of it. I like this quote. It’s something to remember whenever one is feeling alone and unimportant.

That is true. This is a quote to keep in mind and to remind when you feel like you are worthless. Sometimes people, who we care for most, neglect us or do not see our importance to them. If you face with such situations, remind this quote and keep in mind that there are people who actually see your meaning. So do not feel beaten and neglected, and try to identify who really see your meaning and importance, and try to be close to such people

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I interpret this saying to mean that we have an influence on the other people in our lives, even though we may not always recognize that we hold that role. It might even be just a stranger who we hold a door for, or the store clerk we tell “thank you, have a nice day” to. Or it could be a once close friend who we’ve somewhat lost touch with, but we take the time to respond to their Facebook post about their family.
We, as humans, tend to be social beings. And sometimes even the slightest of social interactions can influence our thoughts and feelings.

That is true. Humans are social beings. That social behaviour defines us and gives us an identity. Through that others see who we are and what is our meaning for them. As you mentioned, you don't have to try too hard to be an influence or be of importance to others. A simple smile or a simple 'thank you will make someone else's day, and that will be the thing that he/she craved for. So, yes, we all have a meaning for others and we can exert it well by just being us