The good, the bad, and everything in between.
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl
It was Senior year of high school, if I recall correctly. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but then, no one’s really is. Memory is like a file cabinet with a false bottom. But that’s a discussion for another post.
Back to high school circa 1987-88. The subject? Psychotheology.
Psycho what, now?
I had no idea, but it was an honors-level religion class and sounded a lot more interesting than any of my other options.
There are only three things I remember about the class.
- The teacher was new and her enthusiasm for the subject was a bit frightening.
- We had to journal every day, and our teacher read the journal.
- We read Viktor Frankl’s, Man’s Search for Meaning.
Robert Frost wrote several amazing poems, but in sixth grade I was forced to memorize a stanza.
I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Not too shabby X number of years later, huh? (No, I didn’t look it up. Sr. Theresa was serious about her poetry lessons.)
Back to Viktor Frankl…
I still have the book. It wasn’t logotherapy that caught my attention; I had no clue what he was talking about back then.
What captured my mind and heart were the words he used to describe his experience and the experience of those around him.
There was hope amidst tremendous tragedy.
Throughout the years, his book has come up in various conversations while I’ve pursued my master’s. And each time I tell myself, “You should read it, again.”
But I don’t.
I don’t think I ever will.
For me the lesson was about hope, resilience, compassion, and understanding who really has the power in a seemingly hopeless situation.
You have more power than you think you do.
Own it.
Revel in it.
Do something positive with it.
