So, you think YOU'RE isolated...Vol. 2

I've been writing about themes of isolation over the past few weeks for my team. Historical examples, novels/movies, professions. I'm going to share a few of those here until my team tells me to stop, or I run out of ideas.

So, you think YOU'RE isolated...here are 4 men who created uplifting, personal works of literature from the most desolate depths of isolation.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins interviews Vice Admiral James Stockdale, the most senior US officer captured during Vietnam, about his 9 year feat of survival as a prisoner of war:

Jim Collins: "Who didn't make it out?"

Admiral Stockdale: "Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

This is an incredibly powerful lesson in our present state where the most common conversation starts with, "Do you think we'll go back to normal by...(end of April / end of May / end of the school year...)"

Inspired by Vice Admiral Stockdale's enduring belief that he would prevail in the end, this week we're going to look at literature borne of isolation that radiates hope. No lists of fear and Armageddon here, these are people that faced protracted war, plague, internment, torture and even genocide and yet they emerged with positivity and lessons we can all learn from today. 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Between 161 and 180 AD Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world. The Emperor of Rome near the tail end of it's prime. In fact, he is regarded as the last of the 5 great emperors prior to his son Commodus initiating the decline. (Yes, the Commodus from The Gladiator. No, Commodus did not actually kill Marcus ) Marcus was at heart an introvert and a philosopher thrust into extended wars, during which a plague broke out and ravaged Rome. In fact, the Antonine plague killed Marcus's brother Lucius, and may have killed Marcus as well. 

Despite all of this, isolated for years on the battlefront, and carrying the burden of the empire on his shoulders, Marcus kept a journal intended only for his eyes. It's one of the few documents in history to capture the inner thoughts of the most powerful man in the world, and what you find is Marcus striving to remove his ego, to cast aside the elegant trappings of emperor, and to act first in his civic duty. He famously said, "I am a citizen of the world."

Lesson: "You could leave life right now, let that determine what you do and say and think"

Essays by Michelle de Montaigne

See Also: How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

French aristocrat, lawyer and the Mayor of Bordeaux in the late 16th century. Montaigne is most famous for his voluminous essays. In fact, he invented the modern essay we're so familiar with. It's translation from the French "essai" means "attempt". He wrote the bulk of his essays over several decades isolated in a private office separate from his house. At the time Montaigne was due to turn over his office to the incoming Mayor of Bordeaux, he failed to show because the entire town of Bordeaux was locked down due to an outbreak of the plague. Montaigne wrote about everything, but his recurring theme was the joy of life. You can read his lengthy essays in their entirety, but it'll take you through the end of the summer. A great abridged option of his writing is a biography told in 20 lessons entitled "How to Live" by Sarah Bakewell.

Lesson: "The shorter my possession of life, the deeper and fuller I must make it."

Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot by Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale (this guy is so cool his real name is James Bond) was shot down over Vietnam in 1964 and captured shortly after he parachuted to the ground. He would spend the next 9 years as a prisoner of war, many of them in solitary confinement. In prison he became the defacto commanding officer of every captured American. Recognizing that responsibility he gave them the tools and hope to survive torture, taught them a language consisting of taps (not morse code) to help them communicate between cells, and went so far as to seriously injure himself to prevent his captors from putting him on camera as propaganda. His model inspired, among others, future Senator John McCain, then a young officer at the same prison and the son of the highest ranking general leading the Vietnam War, to refuse the Vietcong's repeated offers to free him as a goodwill gesture to his father. Instead the young McCain chose to remain a prisoner of war to lead his men, was repeatedly tortured, and lived with the deformities caused by that torture for the remainder of his life of service. 

The story from Good to Great, mentioned above, became known as "The Stockdale Paradox". And it outlines a fortitude and belief in survival not constrained by any timeline. Here is how Vice Admiral Stockdale sums up his attitude of survival: 

Lesson: "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

Dr. Viktor Frankl was an eminent psychiatrist in Austria prior to WWII. During the Holocaust Dr. Frankl lost his entire family, saw his life's work destroyed, and himself was interned at a number of concentration camps including Auschwitz. But during this catastrophic experience he found ways to uplift and care for others. And ultimately to reimagine the entirety of his work as a psychiatrist to reflect the lessons he'd learned in observing the mindset of those who didn't just survive the holocaust, but were able to thrive later in life. Frankl's book is written in two parts, the first on his holocaust experience, and the second on the philosophy that emerged from that experience. 

Key lesson: It is not for you to ask "what is the meaning of life?", but for you to answer. 

Summary

I hope that you'll take a few steps back this week to fully appreciate that even isolation can be an opportunity. Amid all of this chaos, anxiety and loss, there is an opportunity for you to emerge on the other side of this experience better for having lived through it. 

It is up to you to decide how you will be better. 

I'll leave you with one more parting thought from Viktor Frankl:

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