A Global Search for Meaning

It can be difficult to be home, our activities and travel limited, perhaps even our conversations. Maybe you are trying to balance homeschooling and working from home, maybe your partner cannot be with you because s/he works in healthcare, food retail or emergency services. Maybe you’re home alone, in your 20’s, or perhaps like my mother in her 80’s. Maybe you have loved ones who have tested positive. Maybe you’re overwhelmed with all that is demanded of you right now. Or maybe you've never been so stir crazy. 

I think there's something we all can apply from the wisdom Victor Frankl gained from his experience in Nazi concentration camps as well as his career as a therapist. Certainly we are all in a much better situation than Frankl was and still, isolation of all types and the knowledge that people are and will die by the 1000s, is real.

Below are excerpts from his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which the Library of Congress lists among the 10 most significant books. In cases where Frankl uses the word man to refer to all people, it has been replaced with more modern language.

From surviving the brutality of concentration camps during WWII

"We all had once been or fancied ourselves 'somebody.' Now we were treated like complete nonentities. (The consciousness of one's inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free people, let alone prisoners, possess it?)"

Some captives closed their eyes and lived in the past, so life became meaningless. But Frankl saw a few who were capable of reaching great spiritual heights, of seeing the opportunity and challenge of turning those horrific experience into inner triumph. The majority of prisoners ignored the internal opportunity and would simply vegetate.

“Any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche's words, ‘One who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.’ …What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn for ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

Frankl cited two examples of suicidal inmates. What kept one alive was love, knowing a child was safe waiting for him in another country. But creative work could be equally as motivating, as with the scientist who had not yet finished or published his work.

"There was plenty of suffering for us to get through. Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer."

Frankl's experience led him to state that there are only 2 races - decent and indecent. Both are found everywhere and penetrate all groups (socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, religious, political, etc.). There is no "pure" race as the Nazi’s claimed, even among the camp guards Frankl occasionally found a decent man.

From his professional career

"…people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.”

“I published a study…what I called 'unemployment neurosis.' and I could show that that this neurosis really originated in a two-fold erroneous identification: being jobless was equated with being useless, and being useless was equated with having a meaningless life. Consequently whenever I succeeded in persuading the patients to volunteer in youth organizations, adult education, public libraries and the like - in other words, as soon as they could fill their abundant free time with some sort of unpaid but meaningful activity - their depression disappeared although their economic situation had not changed and their hunger was the same."

 "Tragic optimism, that is, an optimism in the face of tragedy and in view of the human potential which at its best always allows for: (1) turning suffering into human achievement and accomplishment; (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life's transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action."

 "It is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded or ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued: it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.'  Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically.  As we can see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy…"

What might we take with us in this time of global pandemic?

One thing that stands out to me is the invitation to change our perspective, to transform how we view or personal situations, to convert tragedy and trauma into human achievement. We do this, in my opinion, by really sheltering inside, not within our homes but within ourselves. Minimizing the external chaos and calming the internal chatter so we can direct that internal conversation to what matters most, to cultivating and bearing witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, in ourselves and others.  

 "An active life serves the purpose of giving one the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art or nature. …But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete."

From all his experiences, Frankl found 3 ways to find meaning - a) create something, whether it’s art or music or work that matters to you, b) love someone or many people, deeply, selflessly, and c) rise above suffering and difficulty by finding meaning in it.

In closing, let me leave you with a quote that I find to be a deeply profound invitation.

 “When we are no longer able to change a situation -- we are challenged to change ourselves."

How are you harnessing the difficulties unique to your situation to change yourself? 

And how are we, as members of our human family, searching for the meaning within this pandemic, and ourselves?