What does it mean?
Last night I heard a powerful story of vision and passion, a story I am excited to share with you. At Toastmasters* one of my co-members spoke about the idea of vision, specifically our individual visions for what we wanted to achieve through Toastmasters. He invited us to take a moment to really think about what we hope to do with the speaking and leadership skills we are learning. He illustrated what is was like to have vision (& pursue it) with two stories. One of those stories especially struck a chord with me.
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist who lived through WWII in Europe. Dr. Frankl was also Jewish and as such was relegated to concentration camps, where, as you may guess, he encountered the extremes of human suffering. What set Dr. Frankl apart however was his approach to the ordeals he faced. Despite the dire circumstances of his surroundings, including all of his family suffering similar fates, he decided to use his passion and experience to help others cope with their desperate situation. He used his knowledge to help those around him and himself. Here is an excerpt from the book he wrote after he was released from Türkheim camp:
“We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road leading from the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor’s arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: “If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us.”
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”
–Saying Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp (in German), known in English by the title Man’s Search for Meaning (1959)
When I heard this story last night it cut me to the quick. We all have situations we are trying to “survive,” or muddle through without losing our minds – a dramatic family situation, a bad relationship, an irritating job, etc. But most of us (here in America) are not facing the real drama of living through something like a concentration camp. Yet this man, Dr. Viktor Frankl, when faced with a nightmare, decided to not give up hope or lose his vision. He reframed his circumstances and continued to use his God-given gifts anyway and as a result he helped many as well as himself.
Dr. Frankl went on to teach across Europe and the US, including Harvard. He received 29 honorary doctoral degrees, published 39 books, translated into 40 languages, one of which (Man’s Search for Meaning) was toted one of “the ten most influential books in the United States.” In 1985 he was awarded the Oskar Pfister Award for contributions to religion and psychiatry.
I look forward to learning more about Dr. Frankl. But in the meantime, I am blessed to have heard a bit of his story. It fuels my commitment to live fully, passions infused and vision intact, despite the hard times.
Imagine what is possible if we choose to shine despite the darkness, if we reach down to the deepest part of us and pull up our true selves to face the world!!
*Toastmasters is an educational group which helps you learn speaking & leadership skills. (Let me know if you ever want to come with- it’s awesome)
