Without Meaning, the Material Means Nothing.

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychologist. He had completed a manuscript for a book when he and his wife were rounded up by the Nazi’s. His manuscript was lost during his first days in a concentration camp. Viktor’s wife, brother, mother, and father all died in the gas chambers over the course of the next 3 years in Auschwitz and later Dachau. Vitktor set about the task of recreating his manuscript by finding scraps of paper and writing on them using whatever means he could. In 1936, Viktor Frankl was liberated from Nazi imprisonment. The book he wrote is one of the great works of the last century, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

See? None of us are alone. We all seek meaning for our lives. What is our purpose? Why are we here? Why do we awaken each day in a world that spins on an axis around a star set like a tiny piece of glitter in a vast, expansive universe? Viktor argued that “man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.” He also observed over 60 years ago that “people have enough to live, but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.”

At what possible point in any of our lives could this be more true? It’s really not a matter of “more” or “less” true today versus any other day. The words resonate with us now because of the fear and the pain that the current economic situation brings. The truth, though, is that everything Viktor Frankl wrote in the 1940’s was true then, and those thoughts stemmed from his observations of the world around him. So, they were true long before his manuscript was sent to print in 1946.

Every human being searches for the meaning of their loves. It is an inescapable part of the human experience. Each of us has a heart, mind, and soul that, together, attune us to a compassionate and generous Universe that is constantly sending us messages about the meaning behind our lives. We fail to get that message because we become bound to the world of form, of material things. Is there any doubt that we, as a human species, has the means to feed every hungry mouth’ to clothe every body; to restore dignity and hope to those who have none? I believe we do. We just get distracted.

Without meaning, the material means nothing.