You're afraid your longing for meaning is just weakness

This suspicion that your longing shames you is worth facing directly, for I think it has the truth exactly backwards. The longing for meaning is a mark of depth, not weakness — it is the deep and serious among us who feel it most, the shallow who are content without it, so to ache for meaning is to take existence seriously and refuse the surface, which is courage and depth, not a failing; the truly weak are often those who never ask. Facing the need honestly is braver than denying it — it takes more courage to admit you long for meaning and its absence pains you than to pose as someone above such needs, and the denial is often the real weakness, a defensive refusal to face an inconvenient truth. And a universal longing is more likely a true signal than a mere flaw — the hunger for meaning is found in every culture and age, and so universal a longing is more likely tracking something real than a private delusion, joining you to all humanity. Your longing is your depth, not your weakness. Where did you learn to be ashamed of it?