Saturday, September 30, 2006
The salvation of man is through love and in love. - Viktor E. Frankl
Victor E. Frankl originally wrote those words in 1946 as part of Man's Search for Meaning. Through most of my life, I have believed that there is nothing more human and powerful than the concept of love and for most of that time, I have believed it to be dead in my time. While I wouldn't have spoken such words aloud, because I believe them to be useless in a modern context, seeing them written on the page, coming from the mind of a man who had suffered the miseries and unimaginable horrors of concentration camp existence, their power became undeniable.
Those who survived the Nazi concentration camps survived an experience more horrible than I can fathom. My comfortable life, fretting over customer service for a possession as trivial and luxurious as a car is something of an embarassement to me at the moment. But more shameful is letting such trivialities as the trials and tribulations I have experienced in my search for this thing called "love" darken my ideas of its existence.
In the midst of total misery, suffering, and despair, Frankl would summon up the vision of his wife, the woman he loved, and imagine conversations with her. He would escape horrors I cannot even imagine with the simple thought of her face and memories of her voice. How can I deny the power and reality of something like that coming from a man in such an appalling situation? I can't.
People have been abusing, distorting, desecrating, and shaming the idea of love for as long as our kind has walked this Earth, but it has persevered and survive through our species' most disgusting and darkest hours. Where I have tried to rid myself of the idea that real love can be a real thing in an attempt to rid myself of the longing for it, I have only risked becoming part of the problem, rather than a piece of the solution.
We have to hold on to our ideas of love and companionship, regardless of how ridiculous the world becomes. We have to be willing to stand up and say that love is more important to me than anything else in my life and mean it. We have to really know what love is and dedicate our minds and souls to receiving, as well as giving it. If we do not do these things, we are dead.
I am immediately struck by a dialogue between Morrie (Jack Lemmon) and Mitch Albom (Hank Azaria) from the film Tuesdays with Morrie(based on Albom's book titled the same). Morrie is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease and Albom, both of whom are/were real people, is spending time with him, as the two had developed a professor/student relationship during Albom's time in college. Morrie has a quote that struck me while watching the film: "We must love one another or die". The quote actually belongs to W.H. Auden, but Morrie repeats it frequently during his time with Mitch.
I will admit to having been moved by Albom's story and to being taken aback by the varying circumstances in which men who are dying or consider themselves essentially dead speak of love. It's not a concept many people give serious consideration anymore and we are suffering for it. Those who cannot or will not love and be loved are effectively dead. They are suffering in ways beyond anyone's comprehension.
I do not want to be one of them...
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well kiddo, i'm glad you're finally coming around.
:p
lol You give me no credit! I lost my way for a bit there, but getting back into school and getting serious about examinining some of these lingering issues has really made a difference in how I perceive my own existence. Trust me, you'll find that you do not ever stop examining and learning...which is not a bad thing, if you ask me! :)