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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Life's Transitoriness

“Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.”
 — Victor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Every reader now and again encounters words that give him pause — and a fresh outlook on life as well as an unexpected insight. So it has been for me in reading Viktor Frankl's reflections on his own life experiences. He survived some of the worst of man's inhumanity to man, and lived to discover human value in his ability to endure it.

As I have opined before (cf., here, here, and here), perspective is essentially all that matters in life. Lo and behold, I discover from my readings that not only the currently-chic forward-looking perspective can yield life-value, but so also can reflection on one's own past experiences, not all of which are those that "inspire envy"! Might this insight be that elusive "free lunch" so many people hunger for?

Post #758 Life's Transitoriness

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