Man’s Search for Meaning

This blog is a repost of a paper I had written for an assignment toward my bachelor in divinity through International College of Metaphysical Theology

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl helped to confirm for me that my life truly has meaning, yet that meaning holds a great many questions for me still.

As I read the account of Viktor Frankl’s experiences in the Nazi concentration camps I became quickly self-aware of my own history, my personal experience and upbringing. Here I am, an American born citizen, raised in the back half of the twentieth century with all the indulgences and trappings of middle class, reading an account of a man who suffered extreme injustice, torment, and suffering yet through it was able to find meaning in his life. My first inclination was to wonder if the account would serve to justify the importance of suffering as a means of enabling a person to see one’s purpose, a notion no doubt fueled by the specific brand of Judeo-Christian religious upbringing of my childhood.

What hides in the crossfire between the second amendment and gun control

I wish I could express how deeply my heart aches for the victims and the families of those connected with the Aurora shooting. I express my deepest condolences for any and all people adversely impacted, devastated, and traumatized by this tragedy.

I want to say enough has been said about the need to preserve the second amendment. I want to say enough has been said about the need for gun control. To say that would seem like shouting into a hurricane, as these violent tragedies seem to reiterate throughout American history like a skip on an old vinyl album, with the assault from a single assailant forming the deep grooved scratch in the track of our society.

We are the 100 percent.

Okay, so I’m hearing a lot of percentages being tossed about these days… 1% controlling 90% of the wealth, We Are The 99%, We Are The 53%… yet all I see in each of these percentages is division. Every number I see is less than 100%. The math isn’t adding up.

My complicity in the state of the economy

A few days ago I read the op-ed article by Warren Buffett posted in the New York Times entitled Stop Coddling the Super-Rich. As is hinted by the title, his article implores the members of congress to impose the same weight of financial accountability on the wealthy toward improving our economy as is expected of lower income folks.

How accomplishments can subvert priorities

Sometimes what’s truly important may not feel like it in the moment.

This morning I sat on my couch stitching up the many holes in my projects before I had to get ready for work. The clock felt like it was shedding five minutes with each blink. In the rapidly evaporating free moments of the morning I was doing my best to check off one box after another, leading me closer to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of accomplishment.

Corporate incentives to give vs. gain

Greed begets greed, I told my coworkers the other day.

This comment came in the midst of a discussion about the failed attempt to break the Superbowl attendance record in Cowboys Stadium last weekend. In their efforts to build an attendance high enough to reach the heavens, God manifested in the form of inspectors that found the additional seating did not pass safety standards. The Tower of Babel that collapsed under the weight of the hubris of Jerry Jones and the NFL resulted in seriously disgruntled fans that were turned away and are demanding to be recompensed.

The price of winning

How often do you hear people say something to the effect of:

If I just had the winning lottery numbers…

This statement seems to be a punctuation on one’s life situation. The ellipsis of the statement implies a finality of sorts, that all will be well and wrapped up in a tidy and neat package not unlike your standard situation comedy.