In "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl wrote, 'When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.' Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who became a psychiatrist, a person worth paying attention to. The book itself is an extraordinary read.

I can't help but find myself agreeing with him - I do think that a failure to find meaning will lead to distraction - but not necessarily with only pleasure in mind. Sure, seeking out pleasure to fill a void is only too commonly found today. In fact, it is almost de rigueur. Every aspect of modern consumer society elevates goals that are fundamentally associated with pleasure - status, wealth, power, acquisitiveness etc - with this sense of distraction. It doesn't need to be gone over again here, it is too apparent everywhere, all the time.

But I think that distraction can take different forms - all intended as an escape strategy of one kind or another. An underlying anxiety, or angst, something without form but nevertheless present, one perhaps borne out of a failure to connect with a deeper purpose, can lead to all manner of distractions. Something to fill the pain or the fear or the boredom.

As for what meaning actually is, well that is for another post. Or many, many posts.