What Life Asks of Us

This is the second in a series, considering the lessons we’ve learned during the pandemic. What do we want to preserve and carry forward into the “new normal?”

Each fall, I teach a course at Boston College entitled, “Telling Truths: Narratives that Shape Our Lives.” With my small group of bright-eyed and idealistic students, we ask the following sorts of questions:

— What stories are so compelling — and “true” in a moral sense — that we can’t look away without taking a piece of them with us?

— What stories become a part of who we are, or who we see ourselves as wishing to become?

One of the stories we read is that of Viktor Frankl, a 38-year-old rising psychiatrist in Vienna when he was arrested in 1942 and sent to Auschwitz. Because of his age, training, and brilliance, Frankl possessed a capacity for detachment, even in the midst of extreme suffering. This enabled him to minister to those around him, encourage his fellow prisoners to hold onto hope, and to believe in a future beyond the unthinkable confines of a concentration camp.

He developed a keen understanding of trauma — and of the shock, disorientation, numbness, and eventual passivity that afflict many who experience it. Out of this, he evolved a powerful theory: Frankl came to believe that our guiding motivation as human beings is our desire to live meaningful lives. It is this desire that pushes us to be our best selves in difficult situations, to sacrifice for those we love, to overcome obstacles and to dream visions of healing and betterment.

Last fall, in the midst of the pandemic, teaching Frankl was an entirely different experience than any I’d had up to then. My students were completely attuned to the shock that occurs when the world that we believe will always be there, with its structures and roles and rules — is suddenly, literally within 24 hours, gone. Totally disappeared.

One generation’s survival stories become guiding lights for another.

What stories will we tell our children and grandchildren about this time? What wisdom will we pass along to them?

We have learned hard lessons about how little control we have over our lives. As we continue to ponder our lessons, and the choices we DO have, I share this excerpt from Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning:

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

―Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 84

Food for thought, as we continue together on this journey.

Namaste and be well,
Kathleen