Purpose and Meaning: The Twins That Guard Human Dignity
Earlier today, I sat in the backseat of a taxi on my way to a destination that has already faded from memory. What remains vivid is the conversation that unfolded between the driver and me a conversation that quietly illuminated the architecture of a life lived with dignity.
“I am the safest driver in town,” he said with an easy confidence, glancing at me through the rearview mirror. “I’ve been driving for fifty years.”
Fifty years. I asked his age. Instead of answering immediately, he reached for his identification card and handed it to me with quiet pride: Rodolfo Balana, seventy-eight years old. Nine days from now he would turn seventy-eight, still, a full-time taxi driver. Wihtout hesitation, he was happily stating a fact about himself. Curious, I asked him;
“Why are you still driving full time?” His response was immediate and unembellished. "I have maintenance that I am taking. My life is still my responsibility not my children’s.”
The Dimension Where Purpose Lives
And in that moment, I realized something profound: purpose does not retire.Purpose lives in the dimension of agency. It is future-oriented and directional. It asks what must still be done and who remains responsible. It organizes behavior. It gives the day structure and the self momentum. Rodolfo was not driving because he had nothing else to do. He was driving because he had decided that his life remained his to carry. His continued work was not merely economic it was existential.
Purpose is the compass, it directs action forward and keeps a person moving toward something rather than away from irrelevance.
(Rodolfo Balana graciously granted the author permission to share his photograph and story for this publication)
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“My life is still my responsibility not my children’s.”
As we continued along the road, our conversation deepened. What he said next shifted the encounter from admirable to unforgettable;
“I discovered a long time ago,that the medicine I take works faster when it is bought from my own sweat. The same medicine, when it comes from begging or dole-out, it has slower or lesser effect.”
He let the thought settle between us. He was not speaking about chemistry but meaning.
The Dimension Where Meaning Resides
Meaning lives in a different dimension from purpose. While purpose directs behavior, meaning interprets experience. It is reflective rather than forward-leaning. It asks what this life amounts to and how its events fit together. Meaning is narrative; it weaves coherence out of circumstance.
For Rodolfo, medicine purchased with his own earnings symbolized autonomy. It affirmed that he was still capable, still responsible, still in control. Medicine received through dependency, however necessary, symbolized something else an erosion of authorship. It was not the substance that changed. It was the interpretation. He went on to explain;
“Money that is not earned from your own sweat can easily be gone before you even know it. Because it has no value to the person who simply received it. Even if it’s a big amount. But hard-earned money? you count every centavo. And it feels good to know that I am still in full control of life’s decisions and choices.”
In those few sentences, he articulated a psychological truth that policy frameworks often struggle to capture. Relief may address need, but dignity preserves identity.
The global discourse on ageing has increasingly emphasized this distinction. The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing calls for the full participation of older persons in economic, social, and civic life, recognizing that continued engagement is essential not only for well-being but for dignity and societal cohesion (United Nations, 2002). More recently, the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) has reinforced that healthy ageing is not merely the absence of disease but the maintenance of functional ability that enables well-being in older age (World Health Organization, 2020). Functional ability includes the capacity to be and to do what one values.
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The Power of Control
Rodolfo was not quoting international policy. Yet he was living its principles. When we briefly stopped at a gasoline station, he engaged in lively banter with the attendant sharp, alert, quick with humor. There was no cognitive dullness, no social withdrawal. He was embedded in the everyday rhythm of community life. He was not invisible. Participation fuels vitality. . . on the other hand, exclusion erodes it.
Purpose requires contribution, and contribution sustains inclusion. When older adults are quietly pushed to the margins, the erosion is not only economic it is psychological. Identity weakens when agency is withdrawn. But Rodolfo had not relinquished agency. He was still navigating streets, making decisions, handling transactions, interacting with strangers, and providing a service. His days had contour.
Energy, I realized, is not solely a function of youth. It is often a function of direction. A mind that wakes up with responsibility activates differently from one that wakes into emptiness. Purpose organizes time, and structured time sustains cognition. As the ride continued, he shared more of his life. He has been separated since the late 1990s. He spoke of it without bitterness. He mentioned that his former wife found someone who could support her gambling hobby, and he shared this not with ridicule but with acceptance. He had moved on. He found someone who walks life with him now someone who appreciates the simplicity he offers. He spoke proudly of his children building their own families. He has six great-grandchildren. There was coherence in his narrative.
Meaning integrates experience. It allows pain to coexist with peace. It reconciles past events into a story that makes sense. Rodolfo did not define himself by separation but he defined himself by continuity. His past was neither denied nor dramatized. It was contextualized. Purpose structured his present whil meaning reconciled his past. These two words generated something larger than happiness.
Happiness is episodic, it fluctuates with circumstance, and it depends on external triggers and internal moods. Purpose, however, does not require constant pleasure. Meaning does not collapse under discomfort. A person can endure hardship while retaining purpose. A person can experience loss while preserving meaning.
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Dignity as the Convergence Point
Rodolfo was not chasing happiness. He was practicing responsibility. And responsibility, when chosen rather than imposed, becomes dignifying. When he spoke about medicine working “faster” when bought with his own earnings, he was describing more than belief, he was describing ownership. Effort amplifies value. Ownership strengthens conviction. Conviction influences perception. Perception shapes experience. Even if the pharmacological effect remains constant, the psychological context transforms how it is received.
He asked quietly, “If you beg for your daily basic needs, where is your dignity in that?” His question was not an indictment of those who need support, rather, it was a defense of self-authorship. Dependency without participation can feel like erasure, and he refused erasure.
In that small, moving space, I witnessed the convergence of two distinct but interdependent dimensions of human flourishing. Purpose is the compass, it directs behavior toward responsibility and contribution. Meaning is the story, it interprets experience into coherence and identity. One organizes action while the other organizes self-understanding. When both are present, dignity emerges naturally.
Dignity is not status, it is not wealth, it is not the absence of need but in the condition of being the author of one’s own life.
At seventy-eight, Rodolfo was not merely surviving, he was participating. He was deciding and was contributing. He was integrating his life story into a peaceful whole while structuring his present around responsibility. As I prepared to step out of the taxi, I asked if I could take his photo and write about our conversation. He smiled and said, “It will be an honor.”
The honor, I realized, was mine. Because sometimes the clearest articulation of healthy ageing does not come from formal declarations or global assemblies. It comes from a seventy-eight-year-old man who continues to drive through city streets with steady hands and an unshaken sense of authorship. In him, purpose and meaning were not abstract concepts, they were lived realities, they guarded something more enduring than happiness…they guarded, dignity.
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The Psychology of Earned Value
For retirees reading this, Rodolfo’s story is not about refusing rest or denying the realities of aging. It is about preserving authorship. Retirement does not have to mean retreat. The question is not whether you stop working, but whether you stop contributing. Purpose can take many forms mentoring, volunteering, part-time work, caregiving, creative pursuits but it must remain yours. Meaning deepens when you continue to decide, to act, to shape your days intentionally. Aging with dignity is not about proving strength to others; it is about quietly knowing that your life remains in your hands.
For policymakers and leaders shaping retirement systems, Rodolfo’s life offers a structural reminder. Economic support is essential, but dignity cannot be delivered through subsidy alone. Frameworks such as the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA+) and the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (World Health Organization, 2020) emphasize participation, functional ability, and inclusion not merely protection. Policies must therefore create pathways for older adults to remain economically, socially, and civically engaged according to their capacities and desires. When systems preserve agency rather than replace it, they protect more than income; they protect identity. And when identity is preserved, dignity follows.
In the end, Rodolfo did not offer a theory of aging, he offered a life. In him, purpose was not an abstract ideal and meaning was not a poetic luxury. They were daily practices, earned, chosen, and sustained. His steady hands on the steering wheel were not merely guiding a vehicle; they were guiding his continued authorship. As societies grapple with demographic change and individuals navigate the uncertainty of later life, the question is not how long we live, but whether we continue to live as agents of our own story.
When purpose directs us and meaning steadies us, dignity does not fade with age but deepens.
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References
Shared Story - Conversation with Rodolfo B. Balana (taxi driver of Sy Siu King, Manila, Philippines)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). (2017). Ministerial Declaration: A sustainable society for all ages Realizing the potential of living longer (MIPAA/RIS review, Rome). UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing. Rome, Italy.
World Health Organization. (2020). Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021–2030. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2021). Global report on ageism. World Health Organization.
Acknowledgment to the contributors of Pixabay for the photos used in this article
