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
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