Viktor Frankl The Meaning of Life

In my daughter Morgan's elementary school there was a sign that hung in the stairwell that all the children passed every day that read: "Happiness is an emotion that requires effort at times." This is the crux of Viktor Frankl's philosophy and what he claims enabled him to survive Auschwitz (and thrive in life). "It wasn't the people who had the physical strength and brawn who were most likely to survive, but, rather the people who had the best imaginations and could visualize what they had to look forward to in the future. This mental projection could be a person, place, or thing, that gave them a reason and the passion to want to live."

In his autobiographical book Man's Search for Meaning, the Austrian born psychoanalyst and neurologist talks about “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”

Here are four things Frankl considers essential:

1. We find meaning by paying attention to synchronicity--meaningful coincidences when an event in the outside world matches up with the inner state of the mind that has inner meaning and causes a feeling of amazement and the sense of the numinous. These seeming "coincidences" lift us outside of ourselves, giving us a glimpse of the sense of the divine.

2. We find meaning by finding work that feeds the soul. After losing his life's writing, Frankl never lost hope of getting his manuscript back and if not, he knew he could rewrite it...So essential to have a task that is waiting for us.

3. We find meaning through the people we love or have loved--only through love can humanity be saved. That is true fulfillment.

4. We find meaning by facing our suffering. Even in the face of horrific conditions, it is possible for spiritual life to thrive...

Another Mary Oliver Poem

Spent last weekend in New Hampshire in a beautiful setting in the White Mountains. Went kayaking on a mountain lake and sat ever so peacefully in a kayak, watching a great blue heron move so slowly, intentionally and gracefully through marshy grasses...Then came across this Mary Oliver poem this morning which just about says it all...

Heron Rises From The Dark, Summer Pond

by Mary Oliver

So heavy
is the long-necked, long-bodied heron,
always it is a surprise
when her smoke-colored wings

open
and she turns
from the thick water,
from the black sticks

of the summer pond,
and slowly
rises into the air
and is gone.

Then, not for the first or the last time,
I take the deep breath
of happiness, and I think
how unlikely it is

that death is a hole in the ground,
how improbable
that ascension is not possible,
though everything seems so inert, so nailed

back into itself--
the muskrat and his lumpy lodge,
the turtle,
the fallen gate.

And especially it is wonderful
that the summers are long
and the ponds so dark and so many,
and therefore it isn't a miracle

but the common thing,
this decision,
this trailing of the long legs in the water,
this opening up of the heavy body

into a new life: see how the sudden
gray-blue sheets of her wings
strive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing
takes her in.

I AM BLKBK

If you asked me which musical instrument I love the most, I would be hard pressed to say just one, but if you forced me I know it would be the piano. Not sure where I came across BLKBOK, a uniquely talented pianist from a family of musicians in Detroit who in his own words is "doing what thousands of black artists have always done--take the tool we have and create our own hybrid expression." I love his mission--to make classical music more accessible to everyone. He loves rap and hip hop as much as he loves Mozart and Debussy, and composes what he describes as neoclassic musical poems created for everybody and to bring everyone together. Here is a beautiful example. And here he is performing and talking on the Today Show, interviewed by Al Roker. He makes special mention of a film I particularly loved entitled Green Book, , the story of trailblazing Don Shirley who travelled to the deep south at a time that was not safe for a black musician, to bring music there. If you are looking for something to watch one night, this is a good one...

Charity of the Week:

Save The Children

Painting of the Week

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.