AUGGIE MALLINSON ON THE MEANING OF LIFE

This show is a collection of recordings with Jeff and Stacie’s son Auggie, who died recently. It includes free form speculation about spirituality, the mythologies behind popular culture artifacts, and what Auggie thought the point of life was. As you’ll see, there’s a consistency from start to finish. At the end, you can hear a song written by Jeff and Auggie, and performed by the whole family many years ago. It too captures our family’s perspective on life.

First, a few years back, Jeff and Auggie decided to record their evening conversation in the famous atrium, a place where the family had many similar but varied conversations. It’s a playfully serious conversation about the meaning of life and Auggie’s tentative conception of mystical theology. It isn’t meant to be a statement of dogma but a demonstration of the sort of freedom that allows us to create and remix mythological language for the sake of understanding our world.

We realized that, while we were able to record and share our thoughts over the years, people would not know the genuine and intimate discussions we’d had together. Sometimes, it might be because we might need to hide our openness to the transcendent from the intellectually sophisticated, who might misunderstand us. Other times, it might be that to speak candidly about ultimate meaning might bring about the charge of heresy from institutional religious authorities. Nonetheless, we knew that it might be fun to capture just a sliver of the sort of loving talk about existence that we would enjoy regularly during the four years we spent together as a tight knit family, a family that loved beautiful flavors, vinyl records, jamming together in the living room filled with instruments, and—despite the difficulty of five passionate interlocutors—our favorite thing to do: dream together with words. 

Neither Jeff nor Auggie were thinking of this as some final metaphysical stance. Rather, they went in playfully but sincerely by Auggie to his father about his beliefs, which he then turned back to his son. You are likely to encounter tentative heresies and scientific implausibilities. One of the main things Auggie thought the world needed culturally and philosophically was to a reworking of its mythology. He also thought it important to return to a realization that mythological language is both more helpful than many moderns appreciate but also more flexible than dogmas are understood to be by priests and religious teachers presume. 

In this conversation, Auggie ends up describing what he briefly tossed out as “Trinitarian Pantheism,” though his main point was to demonstrate how we might learn to be more relaxed as we play with narratives, classical mythological names, and contemporary philosophical questions. We welcome you to listen in on this tender moment between father and son. The album we were listening to was Bon Over, 22, A Million.

The second part (starting at minute 27) of this recording is a re-release of an older conversation with Stacie, Auggie, and Jeff in which they discuss the importance of myths and the intellectual and cultural myths we live by in these days. It may be a bit easier to follow and apply as it is definitely more down to earth. It is especially poignant in hindsight, as the discussion goes to being remembered at a funeral, and the nature of heroism. Most importantly his words remind me that he did precisely what he set out to do in life. He didn’t pursue acclaim. Instead, he learned sooner than most that the meaning of life is life. And love is the life.

At the end, we conclude with a song Jeff and Auggie wrote when he was pretty little. The whole family performed it. You can hear a young (admittedly out of key Auggie) singing out on this one, and a young Aidan refusing to believe in the audio drama we were trying to record by saying “that’s not a fish.” It brought tears to our eyes but helps us bring things full circle.

Auggie created the logo for Protect Your Noggin and