Frankl’s piece was, undoubtedly, powerful, moving, and profound. His intense descriptions of his experiences in the concentration camp coupled with his revolutionary insights in his search for meaning make for a captivating experience for the reader. However, when he ties together all of his discoveries from his search for meaning, he concludes that it was the thought of his wife that allowed him to accept his suffering as it is and thus keep working as he was supposed to. Now, there is a question to be asked: Does love, or even just the thought of love, help us escape our suffering? The answer might not be as simple as it was for Frankl.
So, while Frankl was working himself beyond his physical limit in the labor camp, he could see and feel the presence of his wife with him. He even uses the phrase “she was there” to describe how he felt in that moment. The thought and sensed presence of his wife brings meaning to his horrible situation. Not to sound blunt, but it’s basically trying to tell us that “all you need is love.”
*Cue John, Paul, George, and Ringo*
I can’t think of a story I’ve come across that doesn’t involve some sort of tacit reference to the concept of love. Moreover, most stories, old and new, incorporate love as the driving force of the meaning of the story; the notion of love is an underlying answer to all problems that must be solved.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, written several hundred years ago, Lear has a strong emotional attachment to his favorite daughter, Cordelia. Toward the end of the play, Cordelia is the only person Lear loves and truly cares about, and when she dies, he shows immense grief and dies himself shortly afterward. Here, the message is clear: we can’t live without love, we can’t go on. Love works in the same way here as it did for Frankl.
But let us not just focus on fictional stories. Frankl’s situation was real, and thus only real situations can be wholesomely compared to his. Love cannot solve all our problems, nor can it physically take us out of suffering. In our comfortable lives, we require more substance to our day-to-day living in order to truly find meaning. We need success, satisfaction, entertainment, and stimulation in order to discover this meaning. But take away all of our comfort, and what do we get? Well, Frankl already told us what we get. And what’s the only thing left in our lives after all of these constructs have vanished and are completely out of reach? Love, love is all that’s left.
So, realistically, love is (sometimes) all we need. We don’t have to change the lyrics to The Beatles’ song, though.
I definitely agree that when your life is stripped away from you, whether as extreme as in the holocaust or not, the simpler pleasures of life definitely become more meaningful. Love became enough, and that was beautiful to watch (or rather, read) unfold. It's stories and experiences like these that prove to me that love isn't an invention, it's an innate necessity.
ReplyDeleteWhen you first started out I disagreed with your questioning. Clearly love actually made the difference for Frankl; who's to denigrate the power of that just because it's "cliche"? But I like the point you make by the end. When you have the possibility for nothing else, it has to be all you need. But when you have more open to you, it's a base on which you build so much more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Casey, when everything is taken away you must indulge in the simple pleasures of life.
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