reason

Man often live either for their career, well-being and family. “To be able to see their great grand children live a happy prosperous life.” or for them “to be able to prove those who did not believe in them wrong.” - Common answers that can be surveyed, nothing wrong, nothing big, and nothing not worth grasping. But fulfillment in life does not necessarily depend on success. If a man simply aims to be a lawyer, with no particularities and no must-have’s, but dies just before the release of the bar exams. That man succeeded, for he did not lose grasp, he had a dream, and he followed it.
People often find their meaning in life whether it is consciously or not. We either find things to keep us occupied, people to share it with, or set goals, be it materially or not. When finding this certain meaning each person has, people now have a reason to survive – to fulfill that particular goal. Thus, survival is not what defines life, for survival is merely a process in which man undertakes in search for the accomplishment of their previously set goal.

In the book, Dr. Viktor Frankl found various reasons to strive to survive the concentration camp: (1) to meet his (hopefully alive) wife; (2) to rewrite his lecture; and (3) to start a peaceful life anew. With this, I too have found reason in life: for my life, my career and a stable life.

Dr. Frankl did everything that has to be done for his survival, and so have I, am, and will. I too have a goal and it withheld, not by walls and brutalities of a concentration camp. I, as I may say, am still in that stage where I am learning the in’s and out’s of practical human survival – survival in everyday life (food, school, family, etc.)
It’s funny that as difficult as it is for Dr. Frankl to find a lavish meal inside camp, is the same as it is for me to experience a relatively problem-free day.
Perhaps it is that I live life on the reason of betterment, which upon thinking, is a vague and abstract goal to begin with. Nevertheless, living a life with reason is far better than reasonably living a life. I have a goal, a vague one, but still, I aim for its accomplishment, and perhaps, in time, I will find a better one.

Dr. Frankl presented logotherapy, which is pretty much described above. Man has to find his meaning, hence the title of the book, for it is in this special meaning that man sees reason to live on.
This concept seemed to be a “common-sense” thought once read, but neverwould I thought that this concept should somehow be a definition of life. In other words, it would be a natural idea that man needs reason to live and that it defines the way that particular person lives, but it is an intricate thought that this search for meaning is in itself an encompassing lifestyle for society.

Let me quote a paragraph from Dr. Viktor Frankl, for it is in this paragraph that I found essence from what he meant.

A mother of a boy who had died at the age of eleven years was telling her story. “At the death of her boy she was left alone with another, older son, who was crippled… she, however, rebelled against her fate. But when she tried to commit suicide together with him, it was the crippled son who prevented her from doing so; he liked living! For him, life had remained meaningful…” And so Dr. Frankl participated in the discussion, he asked the lady to imagine herself as an eighty-year-old woman looking back on her life. This is what she said: “Oh, I married a millionaire, I had an easy life… but now I am eighty; I have no children of my own… I cannot see what all that was for; actually, I must say, my life was a failure!” Then Dr. Frankl asked her to look back on her real life, this is what she said: “I wished to have children and this wish has been granted to me; one boy died; the other, however, the crippled one, would have been sent to an institution if I had not taken over his care. Though he is crippled and hopeless, he is after all my boy. And so I have made a fuller life possible for him… as for myself, I can look back peacefully on my life; for I can say my life was full of meaning, and I have tried hard to fulfill it; I have done my best – I have done the best for my son. My life was no failure!”

Dr. Viktor Frankl, however seemingly uninspired with a lecture-type presentation, succeeded in introducing n excellent concept to the readers. It is no doubt that Dr. Frankl is as well respected in his field, and by the society.

Everyone wants to die knowing that they had reason to live or to at least lay on their deathbed and have done every possible way to fulfill this meaning.