*
… and tenderly touching a piece of bread in one’s coat pocket, first stroking it with frozen gloveless fingers, then breaking off a crumb and putting it in one’s mouth …
*
This is one of those longing nights when my eyelids don’t shut tight because of the welling of water. Those feelings that come when you think of your old grandmother, or think of the unlimited gratitude you have, or when you surprise yourself with the love you receive and your capability of hoarding it all. This longing can come from thinking of all the words that have shaped the course of your destiny. Which is when I think of Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, where he writes about surviving 3 years in a concentration camp.
After being freed back into the world, Viktor goes on to become the father of Logotherapy, the theory which describes that every human is motivated by a will to meaning in life. While this might not be a unique premise as far as humans having a primary existential angst, his concept is different in its basic tenet. “Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.”
*
One of the best books I have ever read was Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Two ideas that I have carried with me from that short book are: 1. No matter how bad life is objectively, you determine how you feel in that moment about it, and that is ultimate freedom, and 2. Meaning happens at the intersection between you and the world. Those are two profound ideas.
~ Comment Section Of A YouTube Video
*
There is always the unfinished business of living, for which “he must find meaning of his life even in his suffering.” In our suffering, it is very easy to forget the cause of the common good we are all capable of. We have a lot to give. We might have children to tend to, a talent to use for a cause that is greater than your own self.
He says, it’s usually the “Not the physical pain, but the injustice of it all that hurts.” He points out correctly that life cannot be made unbearable by circumstances, but only by the lack of meaning and purpose. This is why probably this features as one of the top five regrets of people who face an untimely death, “Did my life have a purpose? Did I make an impact? Did I matter even a little to anyone?” We all tend to worry in those final moments, surveys have found.
After being taken away from his life as a doctor and thrown into the camp, he lives in squalor, under barbaric cruelty and the uncertainty of impending death each day. He suffers from delusions of reprieve while dreaming each night of cake baths and bread.
*
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
“The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
“The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
*
He offers hope even for those toughest of moments. “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.”
I will leave you with a paragraph where he describes frustration with his waning and waxing willpower to save his daily bread before eating it too quickly. In the most poignant way, he talks about transcending this predicament of saving the once-a-day ration to the last minute of bearable hunger pangs.
“Those who have not gone through a similar experience can hardly conceive of the soul-destroying mental conflict and clashes of will power which a famished man experiences. They can hardly grasp what it means to stand digging in a trench, listening only for the siren to announce 9:30 or 10:00 A.M. – the half-hour lunch interval – when bread would be rationed out (as long as it was still available); repeatedly asking the foreman – if he wasn’t a disagreeable fellow – what the time was; and tenderly touching a piece of bread in one’s coat pocket, first stroking it with frozen gloveless fingers, then breaking off a crumb and putting it in one’s mouth and finally, with the last bit of will power, pocketing it again, having promised oneself that morning to hold out till afternoon.
*
We could hold endless debates on the sense or nonsense of certain methods of dealing with the small bread ration, which was given out only once daily during the latter part of our confinement. There were two schools of thought. One was in favor of eating up the ration immediately. This had the twofold advantage of satisfying the worst hunger pangs for a very short time at least once a day and of safeguarding against possible theft or loss of the ration. The second group, which held with dividing the ration up, used different arguments. I finally joined their ranks.”
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~ Victor E. Frankl
*
Namasté Life: Words I Wish Someone Had Said To Me Much Earlier
Read more HERE.
*
Musings, Quotes And Proverbs For An Optimal Life
Read more HERE.
* * *
About The Article Author:
Our mission with FutureSTRONG Academy – to grow children who respect themselves, their time and their capabilities in a world where distractions are just a click or a swipe away.
I see myself as an advocate for bringing social, emotional and character development to families, schools and communities. I never want to let this idea out of my sight – Our children are not just GPAs. I’m a Writer and a Certified Master Coach in NLP and CBT. Until 2017, I was also a Big Data Scientist. In December of 2044, I hope to win the Nobel. Namasté.
Write to me or call me. Tell me what support from me looks like.
Rachana Nadella-Somayajula,
Program Director & Essential Life Skills Coach for Kids and Busy Parents
Best Book Recommendations And Reviews
Live life through the lens of others, imagine the impossible. Dwell in books.
Learn To Be Miserable. Here Are The Best Ways To Combat Internal And External Resistance To Creativity.
* The below quotes are what make the book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles By Steven Pressfield, a Power house in our fight to the resistance to our craft. * In my younger days dodging the draft, I...
The Cracked Pot ~ An Inspiring Story Of Celebrating Our Flaws And Our Uniqueness
* A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the...
The Story Of The Drowning Man. God Can’t Help Those Who Can’t Help Themselves.
* * * * Our Personal Growth Momentum Welcome. You're here because you're interested in self development. It's simple to start. Tell yourself this every day. "A commitment to personal excellence, unwavering grit and relentless perseverance can only...
This Is What Gets In The Way Of Courage, Especially In The Workplace
* The Courage To Be Authentic: Here are a few important aspects of human behavior that get in the way of building courage and authenticity at the workplace. a. Avoiding tough conversations, we try to be overtly nice and polite. There’s lack of clarity, and...
My Journey Into Robotics And The Influence Of Janusz Korczak On My Teaching
* “Children are not the people of tomorrow. But, they’re the people of today.” – Janusz Korczak, the man who wrote books like How to love a child, said. * It’s been my dream for years to do something to consciously create a better future where...
On How To Write. Writing Hacks, Compelling Story Telling And Essays On Life
On How To Write. Writing Hacks, Compelling Story Telling And Essays On Life “To me, a short story is a conversation between writer and reader, since only the writer can speak, she must take care to respect the reader, to avoid telling him what to think, to...
A Meaningful Excerpt From The Book, What Life Could Mean To You?
* The Dichotomy Of Life & Our Existential Angst: When our minds and hearts can’t put a finger on our deepest insecurities, a feeling called the existential angst is born. Unlike many of our seemingly fleeting emotions like sadness, hate and hurt, this...
Being Resilient: How The Worst Moments Of Our Lives Define Us Speech Highlights
* On the occasion of the National Gay Pride Month, I want to share some words from my journal from 2017. * 02/16/2017: I am madly writing down every single word that’s coming out of Solomon’s mouth. This is amazing. How can love be exclusive? It...
How To Be A Brilliant, Inspiring Public Speaker Who Can Move People To Act
* When Delivering a Speech: Always: INFORMEDUCATEand ENTERTAIN Be: EMOTIONALNOVEL For Verbal Delivery, Modulate Your: RATEVOLUMEPITCHPAUSES * Find your voice and inspire others to do likewise. To find your...
A Winner Never Quits. Really? It’s Time To Rewrite The Toxic Hustle Culture.
* There's a chapter in the book Think Like A Freak, by authors Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, called The Upside Of Quitting. And it talks about how, from childhood, we're all culturally brainwashed on the negatives of quitting. Our culture values hard...
Best Book Recommendations And Reviews For Adults Who Are Eager To Thrive
* "I write for kids, and kids tend to be optimists. Even when the book has a dark theme, it's always through the eyes of a fictional hero, a young person with integrity, someone a reader can identify with and in turn find a kind of integrity and power in...
Become Legendary: Pick Up Grit On The Way To Greatness
* "To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and...
Print Reading vs. Digital Reading: To Read Or Not To Read
* Print reading vs. Digital reading: There’s so much scope for distraction when we’re reading on a device with unlimited possibilities to surf. Can we conclusively tell if reading on paper or a device is better? While digital media is convenient and cheaper to...
Zadie Smith Feels Free in Atlanta
* Last night, I went to a Zadie Smith book signing event at the SCADshow theater. This event was part of Zadie's book tour promoting her new essay collection, Feel Free. She was interviewed by television journalist Gail O'Neill on topics like race, her biracial...
Life Must Go On In Spite Of War
* How can you pick up a book whose title gives away the ending yet keep reading till you finish it? That’s the beauty of Anuk Arudpragasam’s prose in his novel, The Story Of A Brief Marriage. The book is the life in a day and night of Dinesh who is fleeing the...
Bibliomania: Beg, Borrow or Buy – II
* Continued from Part I * * * * * * Our mission with FutureSTRONG Academy – to grow children who respect themselves, their time and their capabilities in a world where distractions are just a click or a swipe away. I see myself as an advocate for bringing...
Standing up to Amy Schumer
* Amy Schumer is a stand-up comedian whose “brave” material mostly consists of musings about her hookups – sexual encounters with relative strangers. And below is my review of her 2016 memoir, The Girl with a Lower Back Tattoo. Since finishing it yesterday...
Thoughts That Changed This Life ~ Musings, Quotes And Proverbs For An Optimal Life
* “When you come to one of the many moments in life when you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown...
Questions, just ask!
Text or Call: 678.310.5025 | Email: info@futurestrongacademy.com
Bringing a Group? Email us for a special price!
This is probably the first time that I savored every single word written.
“This is LIT!!!!!!”
-Ky S.