@philosophyminis: #Suffering is an unavoidable part of life. If you're lucky, this means bereavement, heartbreak, and the occasional but curable illness. For others, though, life brings terrible mental breakdowns, debilitating sicknesses, or unimaginable pain. Yet, as #Dostoevsky wrote, ‘Man is a creature who can get used to anything.’ We're a resilient and hardy species with a monumental capacity to endure. This is what Viktor Frankl, who survived Auschwitz, wrote about in his #book Man's Search for Meaning. #Frankl argues that humans can bear almost any suffering so long as they find some #meaning in it. The only reason we feel like we can't go on is because we can't find a reason to go on. But there is no defined or singular meaning which can help everyone and we can help and counsel people to find their meaning. But you can never give it to them. Consider a bereaved widower of a long marriage, broken by grief. He's told one day to consider the question ‘What if your wife had been left behind instead?’ Suddenly, his grief has meaning. He is enduring the grief in place of his wife, and now he bears it proudly. He's not removed his suffering. He still feels an intense loneliness every day, but now he has a way to carry it. It's notable that our greatest role models are those who have overcome and endured some kind of ordeal, not those who have experienced a life of gilded pleasure. Dogged resilience is what makes us great. It's easy to see suffering as a kind of barrier to a #flourishing life. But as Frankl wrote, ‘Without suffering and death, a human life cannot be called complete.’ #philosophy #stoicism #wisdom

Jonny Thomson

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Monday 19 August 2024 13:21:45 GMT