Standing, gazing up at the trunks and the coniferous leaves of the redwoods towering over me, I asked Kathryn near the end of my phone interview what she loved most about being a professional in the hospitality industry. After all, she directs, “Ambiance and Environment” at a sexy Silicon Valley startup.

“I think how you make people feel is the most important thing in the world,” she divulged.

Something about that resonated with me—how you make someone feel is the most important thing in the world. That explains the nauseating feeling in my gut when I see someone mistreat a gas station worker, a maid, a janitor. They are human, just as much as me or you.

At the core, the most important thing in the world must be outside ourselves. It must be. Or else, as Nobel Laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn begs, “man…would not be born to die.” Plain and simple. Unless we live in pure pandemonium void of meaning. I’ll table that can of worms for now, though.

What is that something beyond ourselves? Or is it a certain someone? But what about them—won’t they die too?

Waa waa. Excuse the morbid thought. But may this prompt you to dig deeper into what the most important thing in the world is to you. Take up a shovel—be it a best friend, a journal, or a quiet walk through an redwood grove—and start digging to start living out meaning.

What do you—my fellow living, breathing, thinking, lovable, worthy human—what do you think is the most important “thing” in the world?