by Kevin J. Browne

Created on: July 20, 2009

Elie Wiesel once said "There are a thousand and one gates leading into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human being has his own gate. We must never make the mistake of wanting to enter the orchard by any gate but our own." There is no right answer for the ultimate questions regarding life and its meaning. But, there are answers which are useful and insightful in their potential to be applied.

One of the most compelling answers comes from Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy. As Frankl describes it, logotherapy is "a psychotherapy which not only recognizes man's spirit, but actually starts from it." For Frankl, meaning must be found in each person's life and is not a given from some external source. The challenge is to find this meaning in the face of what he calls the "tragic triad: pain, death, and guilt."

There are three ways to do this by expressing three values: creative, experiential, attitudinal.

Creative consists in achieving tasks through work, art, or parenting (to name some examples). As Voltaire once said "work keeps us from three great vices: boredom, vice, and poverty." It can also be a way of finding value in our lives.

Experiential consists in having experiences of love, beauty, goodness, and friendship. Each of these can add immensely to the value of one's life. Philosophers like Aristotle and Epicurus have agreed on the importance of friendship. It was Epicurus who said "of all the means which areprocured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends."

Attitudinal consists in how we face unavoidable suffering such as is present in pain and death. In facing our suffering bravely we give meaning to our lives and set an example for others. Frankl points out that "conditions do not determine me, but I determine whether I yield to them or brave them." For Frankl, life has meaning to the last breath because of the possibility of realizing such values by the attitude with which we face suffering. And, this possibility exists to the very end of our life.

The best illustration of this is a story Frankl relates:

"I remember my dilemma in a concentration camp when faced with a man and a woman who were close to suicide; both had told me that they expected nothing more from life.

I asked both my fellow prisoners whether the question was really what we expected from life.

Was it not, rather, what life was expecting from us?

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