What Frankl means when he says we should be worthy of our suffering - Book Report/Review Example

23rd June What Frankl means when he says we should be worthy of our suffering? This essay is primarily based on discussing the meaning of the highly significant message conveyed by Frankl in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Frankl lays great emphasis on the fact that being worthy of our sufferings helps us lead normal lives free of complex psychological clutches. It is not any unworldly message rather it should be implicated by us in our lives so that we may be able to function and coordinate properly even in the midst of aggravated tensions.

Basically, being worthy of our sufferings means that we should be able to move along our sufferings and handle them appropriately, rather than letting ourselves get lost in the angry whirls of miseries. Not being able to be worthy of sufferings should be considered the greatest fear of life and unequivocally, implementing the message conveyed by Frankl in our practical lives demands astounding moral standards. It should never be forgotten that sufferings can also lead to achievements and thus, one should be worthy of one’s sufferings by maintaining the inner strength through which lives can be changed and fates can be re-written.

Those persons who readily embrace their sufferings and relentlessly try to achieve something out of them can consider themselves to be worthy of their sufferings. According to Frankl, its is important that one decides to prefer a courageous life free of fears to a self-absorbed life fraught with worldly pleasures, if one desires to assign a constructive meaning to all the sufferings of life. Being worthy of our sufferings is considered hugely important by Frankl because such an attitude gives our lives a solid meaning and helps us stay away from spending our lives as nihilists and pure consumers of pleasure.

(Breakthrough Writer). I, myself, was completely ignorant of the phenomenal message contained in the necessity of being worthy of sufferings until one day, I happened to converse with an uncle of mine who is a colonel in the army. I could not understand why he was so eager to present his colonial services required by the army general amidst pre-war environment at the country borders and even when he did not have to rely on his profession for the financial purposes. I asked my uncle why he was ready to embrace the sufferings when he had enough money to spend his life luxuriously.

My uncle answered by saying that he was ready to embrace the sufferings because being unworthy of sufferings has been the ultimate fear of his life throughout his military career. He desired to live his life while sacrificing for others because he did not want to live a selfish life, rather he preferred to assign a meaning to his life by embracing his sufferings and benefiting people around him, eventually. From that day onwards, I understood that devoting one’s life for benefiting others while bravely bearing one’s own sufferings is not an ordinary challenge, but one which prompts one to stick to the higher standards of spiritual life.

Work cited: Breakthrough Writer. “Lesson #2: Being Worthy of Our Suffering . . . Or Not and a Bare Existence Vs. the Common Life.” 23 May. 2011. Web. 23 June. 2011. < http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/2011/05/lesson-2-revised-for-summer-2011-being-worthy-of-our-suffering-or-not-and-a-bare-existence-vs-the-co.html>