If We Dare To Listen ...

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of,

and Since Hiroshima we know what is at stake ...

- Viktor Frankl

This past week I finished Viktor Frankl's work "Man's Search for Meaning." The reflections through the first part of the book on his experiences of the Death Camps and Sho'ah under the Nazis during World War Two are simply staggering ... his reflections on life's broader brushstrokes and the impact events like Sho'ah may have on humanity as a whole are breath-taking ...

Over and over I found myself looking back on the events in my life and realizing that like a stone thrown into a body of water, the initial splash may quickly pass, but the ripples remain and under the right conditions can intensify to epic proportions if left untended ... while there is nothing in my life to compare even remotely to the experiences Frankl writes from, the effect on the soul remains similar ... the outcome is eerily parallel ... and the sense of hope embodied in understanding the effect such happenings have in our lives and our journeys has proven beneficial in letting go of what was, and embracing what might be ...

Some thoughts of Frankl's that have impacted my understanding, and guided my continued healing ...

"The Body has fewer inhibitions than the mind. It made good use of the new freedom from the first moment on. It began to eat ravenously, for hours and days, even half the night. It is amazing what quantities one can eat. And when one of the prisoners was invited out by a friendly farmer in the neighbourhood, he ate and ate and then drank coffee which loosened his tongue, and then he began to talk, often for hours. The pressure which had been on his mind for years was released at last ... "

Freedom may often mean an over-indulgence in the very thing that was missed ... food, drink, conversation, human contact ... whatever has been missed and craved, when the pressure is relieved and freedom granted will be consumed with a ferocity that is far from helpful ... Looking back I can see this happening repeatedly in my life ... and at times at an enormous cost ...

"Apart from the moral deformity resulting from the sudden release of mental pressure, there were two other fundamental experiences which threatened to damage the character of the liberated prisoner: bitterness and disillusionment when he returned to his former life. "

These words ring too true, even in the journey I've travelled ... while my "sufferings" and losses were minor, the impact of them was in the grand scheme of things relatively insignificant, the descent into bitterness and disillusionment, particularly when it pertains to the United Church of Canada, has been real and remains an unresolved piece of my journey ...

"our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chamber of Auschwitz; however, man is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer of the Shema Yisrael on his lips !"

And Frankl reminds us, that so long as there is breath in our being there is life ... and so long as there is life, there is hope ... and hope will see us through from this moment to the next ... and as we move forward, the past is left behind ...

Like the Israelites standing looking to the horizon where the promised land lay waiting for their return ... I stand where the wilderness of what has been is giving way to the unknown and unlimited potential of what may be ... and I stand firmly in THIS MOMENT, knowing that is ALL that I have right now, and as our Jewish siblings have taught us: this moment is more than enough - "DAYENU!!!! DAYENU !!!"

And so we journey forward with boldness praying:

“Listen Israel, G-d is our G-d, G-d is one.
And you shall love your G-d, with all of your heart,
with all of your soul, and with all of your possessions.
And it will be that these words which I command you today
shall be upon your hearts,
and you shall teach them to your sons,
and you shall speak them when you sit in your house,
and when you go on your way,
when you lie down and when you rise up.
And you shall bind them as a sign on your arm,
and they shall be Tefillin between your eyes.
And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and your gates.”
(Deut. 6:4-9)

may it be so ...