Madam, - Trying to find a meaning in one's life is surely the primary motivational force in our lives. As the American writer James Thurber, said in verse: "All people should learn before they die, where they are going to, from where, and why."
The extent to which the sense of meaning has faded is the extent to which people experience a nagging sense of emptiness. Those who fail to detect meaning will try to compensate for its loss in many unhealthy and negative ways, as the President's recent remarks about "the dark side" of Irish life suggested.
But the humanist answer (Cormac O'Connell, May 16th) doesn't go far enough. The man who said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"is the one with the answer to the meaning of life.
In following Christ we can be sure that we are on the right way, a path that leads to true happiness. - Yours, etc.,
SEAMUS HUMPHREYS,
St Augustine's Priory,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.