What little things make life worth living?
Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, spent three years in four different concentration camps.
After escaping death, he talked about “pillars of aliveness” that helped him survive the worst circumstances in life. His pillars were music and the natural world.
He said:
It is not only through our actions that we can give life meaning we can fulfill the demands of existence not only as active agents but also as loving human beings: in our loving dedication to the beautiful, the great, the good.
He was saying that we can find meaning in life beyond what we do. We can find it as consumers of what's beautiful and great in life.
He added:
Imagine that you are sitting in a concert hall and listening to your favorite symphony, and your favorite bars of the symphony resound in your ears, and you are so moved by the music that it sends shivers down your spine; and now imagine that it would be possible for someone to ask you in this moment whether your life has meaning.
To him, when a song hits just right, it can be so euphoric and resonating that at that moment, it makes life worth living.
He noted a similar effect with nature and people:
Those who experience, not the arts, but nature, may have a similar response, and also those who experience another human being. Do we not know the feeling that overtakes us when we are in the presence of a particular person. The fact that this person exists in the world at all, this alone makes this world, and a life in it, meaningful.
It made me think about what things in my life connect with me so deeply and fill me with so much joy that they alone can make life worth living.
I felt this when I went backcountry camping last summer. Swimming in the Georgian Bay and appreciating the escarpment in front of me was pure bliss. It made me feel grateful for being alive and not missing out on that moment.
In that instant, that was the meaning of life.
It sounds romanticized and maybe even corny, but I relate to what he was saying.
Are there any things like that in your life that put you in moments of bliss?
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I write about ideas from great thinkers so we can stand on the shoulders of giants, instead of figuring life out on our own