Define it Before it Defines You

I have to admit, I don't know what this post is about. Not yet anyway. You see, earlier this morning, in between sleep, I started putting a post together in my head. As I sometimes do, I typed a quick note in my phone in order to remind myself later of the idea. It is now later and I have made it to a computer, but my note wasn't sufficient to jog my memory. So I have a title, as you see, and one other phrase: "Searching, developing, maintaining." What does that mean?

I know that the overall concept had something to do with Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, which I just finished reading yesterday. Frankl, for those who don't know, was a psychiatrist of the Vienna school. He was also a victim of Hitler's genocidal tendencies and spent three years in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. He survived, though his wife and other family members were murdered in the camps. Frankl died in 1997 at the age of 92.

The book gives his explanation of how he survived the hardships and suffering of the death camps, as well as gives an overview definition of his clinical theory, called logotherapy. At less than 200 pages it is a quick read and for the most part is easily understandable. As he goes into his theory the words get a little more technical, but anyone can plow through and get the message loud and clear. I recommend this book to all.

Logotherapy comes from Logos, which is the root of the word logic, as well as being defined as "account," "reason," or "meaning." That's what Wikipedia says about it anyway, take it or leave it. I'm going to take it. Frankl defines logos as "meaning." His therapeutic message: find meaning in your experience.

We all have experiences, it is the one thing we can't get out of while alive. It is better said that we all have experience. The human body is a giant sense organ, adapted to glean information from divers forms of stimulus. We can see, taste, touch, hear, and smell. In these ways we experience the environment. Within our minds we can experience beyond the literal absorption of information through our external senses by pondering and postulating. All of this gathering of information equates to experience. If you are alive, you are gaining experience, and that experience is shaping your life.

What we go through changes us. As my old buddy Heraclitus always says, "You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." Okay, so he isn't my old friend, but we did get a Slurpee together one time before a high school football game. His cousin was starting as quarterback that night and I had nothing else to do. Anyway, that wasn't when he said this phrase, so it really isn't important. You can't step in the same river twice because when you come back to step again, the water has changed. It isn't the same river. Sure, it looks the same, is in the same geographical location, and water is still flowing, but it is different. And so are we, every moment of every day. Try it out. Stand up. Walk across the room and then come back. You are different now than before you did that. You now have that experience as part of you. Deep.

So experience changes us. What of experience? Is it good, bad, or both? According to Dr. Frankl it is what you make it, mostly. There is no denying that some experiences are bad. Just flat out lousy. They are the opposite of good. That is fact. But can bad things work for your good? Yes. I don't have my copy of Man's Search for Meaning at hand, so I can't quote from it, but I will certainly paraphrase for you. Dr. Frankl points out that we needn't seek out suffering in order to gain certain experience or to learn, because it comes on its own. We don't need to seek it out, but when it comes we do need to apply meaning to it.

The meaning we apply to experience can make all of the difference. If in the case of suffering we suffer with purpose greater than the immediate circumstances the suffering sort of negates itself. That is to say, the suffering isn't in vain. Again, there isn't any need to seek for suffering, it is readily available in a broad spectrum of severity. Define it before it defines you. And that goes for life in general. It doesn't have to be bad experience or suffering. All aspects of life need definition. Define it. Have a purpose, a vision, a goal. Plan, and then work to achieve the end result of that plan.

It is not enough to sit idly by and wonder what life has in store for you. It is not sufficient to ask what life can give you. This is another section of Frankl's writing that I would quote from if I had the book open next to me. If Viktor Frankl was our country's 35th president he might have said it like this 'Ask not what life can give to you - ask what you should give to life.' What does life owe us? My interpretation of this whole idea is that life is a gift and we ought to live gratefully and with purpose. Life, as an entity represented by the people around us and situations which befall us, does not owe us anything. Perhaps if we have thoughts of expectancy and we can transition those thoughts into obligation then we might fare a little better than we previously have.

Are you searching for meaning? I am. I have found a lot of meaning in general terms, but there are unique moments of experience that continuously need meaning applied. Overall I have a direction in which I am travelling and a vision of how to manage that path. Having these helps me to place meaning and purpose in the experiences I have. It also helps when enduring an unfavorable experience. I will conclude with the obvious, if oft ignored, thought that we can't choose the results of our choices, but we can choose the meaning we give them.