Why do things have to have meanings? Why can't they be just things?

We seem to place so much store in the meaning of things. Meaning is assumed to be some essence of which we all have perfect apprehension. What an absurd game. The only thing we have going for us is to be sufficiently awake to ask, "huh?" "what do you mean?" or "what did you say?". The latter two typically evoking a torrent of "explanation" that only adds to the original noise and the only way to stop it is to nod, smile, use whatever acquiescing body language you have to hand and say: "uh huh", "I see" or "really?" The latter being the most honest of the three.

What increasingly amazes me is how far we as a race have progressed with such a noisy, inefficent and downright confusing set of protocols we blithely call communication.