Vavilov, the creator of the seed bank, had already been killed by Stalin; the Nazis were just outside the city, and the citizens of Leningrad were starving. Dmitri was so weak he could barely stand up, and with every day without food the cold seeped in deeper so that he could barely remember being warm. His mind had become foggy, but it could still focus on the thousands of packs of rice that surrounded him. And yet Dmitri, along with the other members of the Institute of Plant Industry, chose to starve to death, surrounded by food.
Last week I talked about hope and the desperate need for it. And I believe in hope. I also believe that there is something more powerful than hope. Something that can give you the strength to starve to death while surrounded by food, fight an impossible battle, and to struggle to go forward one more day in the worst of circumstances.
The answer comes from someone who understands surviving hard times far better than me. His answer was, ‘Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how’. And while Viktor Frankl makes clear in Man’s Search for Meaning that having a why doesn’t guarantee you’ll survive hard times, giving up because you don’t have one guarantees you won’t.
There are plenty of science fiction and fantasy stories about the search for meaning, but few do so quite as directly as Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. (If you haven’t read it, I’m going to discuss some things that happen in the first book.)
At the core of that search for meaning is Kaladin Stormblessed. He’s in a situation not that different from the concentration camps that Viktor survived. He’s a slave, being used in whatever way people want, and every day he sees people being sent to their death.
The story shows him find meaning, and that meaning first saves him and then allows him to save others. And how he finds that meaning matches Viktor Frankl’s advice.
The most important part, for Kaladin and for us, is not just to power through difficult times. You can do that for a while, just like Kal does. But eventually that strength runs out. In Kal’s case, it ends with him standing at the edge of a chasm, ready to jump. In his book, Frankl talks about the same moment. He talks about when people stop trading their cigarettes for food and instead smoke them because they have given up.
In that moment, Kaladin makes a different choice. He creates meaning by taking on concrete responsibilities. And even though his situation doesn’t change, having found a reason to keep going, he can bear the same thing that had driven him to the edge because that’s what the chosen responsibility demands of him. And because he is the only one who can protect Bridge Four.
Taking on a task or vocation that can’t be accomplished by anyone else is the first source of meaning.
The second source of meaning is created when Kaladin sees the potential in other people and helps them reach it. With Bridge Four, that isn’t easy, but, according to Frankl (and most other people), love is the deepest source of meaning. The bonds of love Kal creates are what give him strength, and in the fantasy world of Sanderson, that is largely literal.
The third source is trickier, but it’s at the core of Kaladin’s story.
Frankl is careful not to say that suffering is good. The pain that Kaladin suffers isn’t good either, but while Kal can’t change his situation, he can create meaning in it. He does that by choosing how he reacts to it. And once he does, the suffering takes on its own sort of meaning.
In the book, it is that moment when Kal gets to choose between ending that suffering and what he believes is right. That choice is a freedom no one can take from him.
Most of us won’t be sent into a war without armor or weapons. That doesn’t mean that we don’t need meaning, or that without it we won’t be driven into hopelessness.
I look around and see far too many of us lighting the last of our cigarettes and waiting to die. And as much as I want to tell you everything can be fixed, that’s not a promise I can make. But what someone who survived one of the most horrific and hopeless situations anyone has ever seen has told us is if you take responsibility for something, you’ll make yourself strong enough to bear that situation.
Question of the Week
As a small creator, the patrons and those who help in other ways are the only reason I’m able to do this every week. If you can help, that is fantastic, but I don’t want anyone left out. So if money is tight, then grab a free month, and if at the end of the month you want to stick around, please get another one.
Harry is the best in the world at virtual reality combat, but he no longer finds the meaning in it he once did. He wants to do something that matters. But he lives in a paradise where robots do all the important work and people are left to enjoy life.
Louis and a few other floor workers at a factory struggle to pay the bills on the artificial organs that they were forced to get after an explosion at that same factory. Facing a hostile management team and near-overwhelming medical costs, they have to work together just to survive.
This isn’t a story about changing a broken system, but about surving in it.
The easiest way to give independent authors a chance to impress you than a short story. So grab some free short stories and perhaps you’ll find your new favorite author.
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For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.
Viktor E. Frankl
I really do like the Stormlight Archive and when I realized how well it fit with Man’s Search for Meaning it made everything far easier. But as you have almost certainly worked out, it was mostly just to talk about a book I think is important.
So, if you haven’t read it I strongly suggest that you do.
Elton Gahr
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