The meaning of life is not to undergo an endless string of learning experiences.

You know you're hearing this sentiment when people speak of events in the following manner, "chalk it up to a learning experience and move on." Etc.

This is a new version of the divine plan, all of these are the same:
"Well, I became parapalegic in the accident because God has a plan for me."
or
"I know that God is watching me because I'm alive and a parapalegic instead of dead."
or
"I learned that accidents can happen in one singular instant and irrevocably change your life, thus I am parapalegic, and now I know to appreciate every moment I'm alive."
or
"Now that I'm parapalegic I've learned that life is not to be wasted and I will dedicate myself to crusading for handicapped access everywhere."

There's no reason for the accident. Drunk, tired, speeding, bad weather conditions, or the confluence of several events and instances causing an accident. These could all very well be facts with regard to history. They have no meaning within the event as it happened or is about to happen. Any attempt to place meaning on accidental occurrences is like invoking Lady Luck. The paradox of this manner is that it purports that there are no accidents. "You see when I hit that tree it wasn't an accident, because it revealed my new purpose, which is to get ramps and elevators everywhere." Or, "It was no accident, God put that tree there to teach me, his beloved child this and that." And yet in diffusing the accident, a divine power must be invoked. The elevator crusader doesn't mention God but he believes there's something more powerful than just an accident. If you asked the secular elevator-crusader about God he'd say, "No, I just believe the accident taught me certain things about life." The rhetoric and reasoning behind the "lifelong learning" mantra is a carryover from christian dogma.

You have to rationalize shitty events.

People should be content to know that they are done learning sometime in their twenties. If you're still having revelations about yourself or the world at age forty you must be retarded. It's easy to turn a leaf over, look at the other side and exclaim that it's something different. Know that the leaf is the same.