Here’s an interesting fact - there are only two days in our lives that are less than 24 hours long – the day we are born and the day we die. Mark Twain summed up the significance of the days of our lives more poignantly when he wrote, "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why!”
Victor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning” has sold over nine million copies worldwide and has been voted one of the most influential books of all time by the Library of Congress. It describes how his horrifying experiences in the Nazi death camps led him to some powerful insights into the importance of finding a 'why' to our lives. Victor Frankl came to the realisation that those who have a strong sense of purpose are able to rise above adversity and hold onto hope even in desperate circumstances. He found that it was precisely this which made the difference between those who struggled on and those who succumbed to the daily onslaught of brutality and depravation. Lack of food, shelter and health seemed to matter less than an absence of meaning and hope.
Those who find a convincing 'why' to their lives find other things besides - the inner strength to face and overcome difficulties, the ability to look beyond the material world to more permanent and meaningful satisfactions in life, and to find that genuine happiness which is the wish of every parent for their children.
A few years ago, scientific journals published about 100 studies on sadness for every one study on happiness. Today we have a much clearer picture of what makes people happy. University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman, author of the book “Authentic Happiness”, has done a great deal to explain how to find happiness. The evidence is fascinating: The happiest people pursue personal growth; they judge themselves by their own standards, never against what others do or have and, most importantly, they feel their lives have purpose.
Even physical health, assumed by many to be crucial to happiness, only has an impact if people are very ill. Seligman’s research even suggests that, relative to income, once $50,000 is reached, happiness levels off. Seligman writes: "…people who value money more than other goals are less satisfied with their income and with their lives as a whole …" Seligman maintains that external circumstances only have a minimal effect ("no more than between 8 and 15 percent of the variance…") on happiness.
Life on the North Shore and, in particular, Kristin School, is a far cry from the unspeakable horrors of the concentration camps - but the principles Victor Frankl unearthed there are still profoundly relevant today. My hope for every young person at Kristin is that they will find a grand passion in life; pursue interests which truly inspire and motivate them and find a 'why' that is worth living for. Friedrich Nietzsch put it bluntly, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
