The Meaning Difference

Miracle on Mt. Everest: The Meaning Difference

Related PODCAST:
The Meaning Difference:
A Personal Interview with Dr. Alex Pattakos
Part 3: The Crisis of Meaning and Personal Reflections
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Last evening (June 25, 2006), I had the opportunity to watch Matt Lauer on Dateline NBC interview mountaineers Dan Mazur and Lincoln Hall about their recent experience on Mt. Everest.  Indeed, their story was quite different than the one described in my post earlier this month, Mt. Everest: Choosing Power, Pleasure or Meaning, when David Sharp died near the summit while some 40 mountain climbers passed him by on their way to the top. 

In this case, Dan Mazur and two others, who had retained him as their guide, were willing to sacrifice their dream for someone they had never met, Lincoln Hall.  The actions of these three people were only part of the "Miracle on Mount Everest" -- Lincoln had been declared dead the day before and survived the night without oxygen, food, water, or a tent in 20-below degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures near the summit before he was found!  And, in his interview with Matt Lauer, Hall recalled the following: "I can’t die. I’ve gotta go back.  I’ve got to—I’ve got to come back to the family----to my wife and boys. That was a commitment that I made to myself when I decided I’d go on this expedition. That I would come back alive. All I can say is that I was determined to stay alive. I told myself I had no option but to live."

In my book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts, I introduce Frankl's notion of a coping maxim, that is, his fundamental attitude toward survival upon his arrival at Auschwitz: "I'm responsible for living from now on in a way that I may make use of the slightest chance of survival...." (p. 45) 

Lincoln Hall, it is fair to say, had adopted his own coping maxim; a fundamental attitude that helped him survive his ordeal near the top of Mt. Everest!  Alas, here's yet another example of Viktor Frankl's principles at work and the difference that meaning can make in one's life!

All the best,
Alex

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
Santa Fe, NM USA  www.themeaningdifference.com

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SPIRITUALITY and SUSTAINABILITY

Related PODCAST:
Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning
Alex Pattakos' interview with INTERFAITH VOICES
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Last December at the Habitat JAM, there was a meaning-full conversation about spirituality and it's relationship to sustainability. It emerged from a few thoughts I shared in seeding the dialogue. Many people showed up to share their points of view in this unprecedented, three-day online conversation. This topic continues to come up and seems particularly timely with all we see going on across the world. I still remember some of the "meaning-full" insights that ERIC from Canada offered at the Habitat Jam. I pasted them in below. Following, I've also offered my reflections and invite you to share your thoughts:

INSIGHTS FROM ERIC from Canada:

1. Many sustainability discussions are "outer-focused" (i.e. how can WE get someone ELSE to change?). To be more effective, I believe we need to shift from "what should others be doing to be more sustainable" to "how do we help people discover what matters most and is most sustainable to them?" For some it will be about creating work which is fulfilling and provides sufficient income (without being overly consumptive). For others, it will be about resolving conflicts in relationships. For still others, coming to peace in our battle with time.

These are all sustainability issues, and we all face them. In fact, I'm coming to see that "sustainability" is really about helping each other deal with the very real challenges of being human.

2. My experience of spirituality and sustainability is that both are deeply inside jobs (or begin there). For example:

- Finding what matters within us, listening to our values/meaning, purpose/call, higher wisdom.
- Acting on what is powerful, meaningful and alive in us (and true to us)
- Doing what we personally can do, rather than getting others to change first.
- Communicating what matters to us, in our words/actions
- Attracting others because it speaks to them. They want to do it, and feel this way, too.
- Building community by sharing our truths, and being willing to listen (deeply) to others.

These steps seem to me to be at the core of most fundamental change. It expresses what Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Moving from a culture based on consumption/control/violence to one of caring for the earth/each other requires a fundamental shift in our values and consciousness. Whether it's called deepening our humanity, listening to indigenous wisdom or embracing our spirituality, the shift must come from deep within each of us."

MY REFLECTIONS:
I agree with ERIC that so much of the sustainability discussion is focused on fixing things "outside" of ourselves that we often miss the ultimate source of sustainable energy--the human spirit. Even on an intrapersonal level, there is so much that each of us can do to improve sustainability in our personal lives--through our choice of attitude and actions.

On an interpersonal level, each of us also has many opportunities to improve sustainability through how we "choose" to interact with our neighbors, broadly-defined. Whether we like it or not, we're all "role models" for others. And each of us has a personal responsibility to decide what kind of role model we want to be. NBA coach Phil Jackson, in his book, Sacred Hoops, notes:

        "It's more important to be aware then it is to be smart."

As we participate in dialogues like the Habitat JAM that attracted 39,000 people from 180+ countries over three days in December, as well as other gatherings, we will raise the level of awareness that we have of ourselves, of each other, and of the planet for the better of all humankind. The human quest for meaning, in my opinion, has to "drive" sustainability, not the other way around. Human beings should not be marginalized by treating them like mice running around in a maze looking for cheese!

"The true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as if it were a closed system." ---Viktor Frankl

What are your thoughts?

All the best,
Alex

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
Santa Fe, NM USA  www.themeaningdifference.com 

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Come visit the Viktor Frankl Collection at the Global Dialogue Center
Put your mark on history, share your perspective on PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Mt. Everest: Choosing of Power, Pleasure or Meaning

Recently, I had the honor of delivering The Eighth Annual Viktor Frankl Lecture at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. During the lecture, I referred to a "current event" that involved the death of a young man from the UK near the summit of Mt. Everest. His name was David Sharp. While he was dying, some 40 or so mountain climbers passed him by on the way to the top of the mountain and did not either try to help him or comfort him in his final moments. The story touched me. From my perspective, it serves as an example for us all to see, where the will to meaning, once again, was subordinated to the wills to "power" and "pleasure."

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to conquer Everest, criticized these climbers for leaving David Sharp and carrying on to the summit. His criticism also extended to his compatriot, Mark Inglis, on his way that same day to become the first double amputee to reach the summit. Inglis had stopped to offer a little oxygen and then left David alone to die as he went on to complete his climb. "I think that it is despicable.  Human life is far more important than getting to the top of a mountain," Sir Edmund said (The Globe and Mail, May 25, 2006).

Viktor Frankl also affirmed this truth, when he wrote,
"Life retains its meaning under any conditions.  It remains meaningful literally up to its last moment, up to one's last breath."

In the same article, Margaret Somerville, a McGill University ethicist offered her perspective, "Even if you say there's nothing that can be done, there seems something wrong with that.  What sort of people are these people who are climbing Everest?  I suppose that they've got to be driven or they wouldn't be doing it, but it's almost like a loss of soul, a loss of humanity. ...We all fear abandonment, we all fear dying alone....This was a dying man and nobody held his hand.  There's something wrong there. There is something deeply disturbing."

A few pertinent passages from my book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts, shed light on our potential to realize our will to meaning under any condition:

"In the concentration camps,...in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentials within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions." (p. 91)

"In the death camps of Nazi Germany, Frankl saw men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread." (p. 23)

"Unconditional meaning, however, is paralleled by the unconditional value of each and every person. It is that which warrants the indelible quality of the dignity of man. Just as life remains potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those which are most miserable, so too does the value of each and every person stay with him or her." (p. 7)

I suspect that this situation on Mt Everest will give rise to many discussions and debates, if not authentic dialogue, focused on ethics, spirituality, and the essence of humanity (i.e., existentialism).

What's your perspective?

All the best,
Alex

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
Santa Fe, NM USA  www.themeaningdifference.com

***********************************
LEARN MORE - GET INVOLVED:

Come visit the Viktor Frankl Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Put your mark on history, share your perspective on PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY