I remember where I was the first time I heard the music of Ireland’s greatest band: U2. It was 1985. Someone snuck a bootleg cassette of U2’s groundbreaking Under a Blood Red Sky into my Spanish lab. 

I didn’t know why the sky was blood red or why Sunday was bloody, but the guy singing seemed pretty pissed about it. Anthem rock. I was hooked.

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Promo video shot in studio when Bono was just a wee lad.

Our Restless Search for Meaning

The song is an anthem to man’s inherent and restless search for meaning.

Perhaps it is our genetic connection to the cavemen or Adam & Eve ─ but we always seem to be searching for meaning in our own lives. 

The cavemen were constantly worried about killing their next beast. Or finding a larger cave for their wives-before the next snow. These things were important for survival. 

Then there’s the whole thing in the Garden of Eden. The trickery with the apples. A story for another time. 

Regardless, as a species, there’s an inherent restlessness and searching at our core. We are always looking for meaning and purpose in our lives.

Seeking more. Longing. 

It’s what Bono was singing about in I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (1987).

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U2\’s I Still Haven\’t Found What I\’m Looking For Live From Milan

The Mating

I think our lives are divided into two, nine-hole golf matches. We spend our elementary years chasing girls—with a worm on a stick. Then they start to smell good. We start to like raincoats. From there the real chase is on. Everything we do is to impress the fairer sex.

In the mating, most guys are just trying to find the unicorn on the universal hot-crazy matrix. And they’re trying not to look totally incompetent at work so they can go home and watch sports.

The front nine is all about “the mating”.

Once we find sturdy mate, life gets simpler at “the turn”. Like the cavemen, we find a nice cave. We get a sharp spear and a beast of burden.

The Mattering

On the back nine we can really get our game on. We might get married, maybe have some crumb snatchers. We buy a place, find a better job, have some kids, buy a bigger place. You get the point. Pretty standard formula. 

“I’m just trying to matter and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody.”

— Reese Witherspoon

On the back nine there can be trouble. Lots of trouble. Especially if there’s a young, scantily clad woman on the beverage cart.

On the back nine we start to look around. We start to measure. We start to compare. We start to wonder and worry. I think the cavemen did this too.

We start to question everything. Why does Atok have the biggest cave? Why did Krog get the biggest beast? And how did Thor get a third wife when he only has one eye left.

The Dead Cat Bounce

Life starts well, and ends well. But, the middle part can be rocky.

This is the finding of a recently released paper from economists David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick. 

Average life satisfaction slowly declines from early adulthood high until it takes a “dead cat bounce” in the early 50s.

The good news is that once you hit bottom, life gets less sucky as you age. Satisfaction rises by about 20% from the late 50s, through the 70s.

Ostensibly because mortality is looming. And we focus on cherishing the moments we have left.

I don’t think that’s the reason. I think it’s cause we’ve already made all our dumb decisions. And, there’s no wisdom in the second kick of a mule.

And that’s where Bono comes back into the story. Remember Bono?

Maybe I Have Found What I’m Looking For

I think we are wasting time in The Mattering.

I think what we are looking for is right in front of us.

My Pastor, Tony Sundermeier, recently made this great point in a sermon. Instead of living in awe of our imperfect lives, we spend our days longing and looking and searching for something better. His sermon inspired me to write this story

I think Bono is looking in all the wrong places for that meaning, too.

The secret of a meaningful life is meaningful relationships. It’s family and children and friendships and memories.

So what about you? Have you found what you’re looking for yet? Is it right in front of you? Like finding your lost sunglasses in the last place you look.

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