Having a WHY to Live (contd)

Continuation from previous blog, passages from "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E Frankl worthy of quote:

Another good analogy about meaning(s) in life which Frankl used is that of a movie with thousands of pictures, each has a sense and meaning. However the meaning of the whole film can only be understood at the end. He then posed a question whether or not the final meaning is then also dependent on the meaning of each situation in life. Thus the meaning of each suffering moment may not be understood but will soon unfold at the end.

Moving on to the subject of having the past to live for, he saw no reasons why people pity the old for their infirmities. "Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past- the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized- and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past."

"But today's society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness."