Two Sundays ago the CBC radio program, The Sunday Edition, re-broadcast a lengthy exploration of Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl and his family were among the millions taken to extermination camps by the Nazis during the Second World War. His parents, his wife, and his brother perished and only a sister survived. Frankl, a therapist, wrote the book about his experience and his philosophy of life in ten days and it was first published anonymously in 1946. It was largely unknown until the late 1950's when it was translated into English in the United States under his name. It became a bestseller with million copies in print in many languages.
Host Michael Enright was reading Man's Search for Meaning on Toronto public transit when he realized that a woman across from him was also reading it, in the same older edition. It turned out that she is a cancer survivor and the book spoke to her. During the hour on The Sunday Edition a leader from a First Nations community was interviewed, and others who had found the book helpful.
Frankl was convinced that to live is to suffer to some degree, but we can find meaning in our suffering. We can seek to find a purpose even in the harshest of circumstances, although no one can tell another what that purpose should be. Frankl quoted Nietzsche who said "he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
The program touched on the fact that while the book is not religious, Frankl was an observant Jew through the rest of his life (he died in 1997 at the age of 92.) His means of survival in the camps were questioned by some, and others despised him because he refused to condemn all Germans as perpetrators of the atrocities.
Of course this documentary from 2016 was re-broadcast because we are all attempting to find meaning in the midst of a pandemic which has created a pall over our lives as individuals and massively disrupted societies around the world. I would encourage you to listen to the doc. I've found my 1961 copy of the book and may read it -- I think it belonged to my father.
We can all pray for meaning and purpose in each day, for ourselves and others.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/closing-the-office-of-religious-freedom-students-rate-their-universities-don-francks-the-enduring-power-of-1.3520034/the-meaningful-man-a-one-hour-special-1.3520040
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