Thread by @elbh

My inspiration for years:

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” —Camus

For the last sixty years, we have been lulled into such a false sense of security. We are victims of only our own self denial. The world does. It change. Human nature does not change. It is brutal and wild.

“Never again” we march forward thinking we are somehow wiser, stronger

And worst of all smarter than our forefathers.

We are not. We know more, but our wisdom is still lacking and our ability to wrangle things far outside our control minimal.

We do not command land or sea, the heavens or the earth.

It is all fluid, all the time. Messy and unstable. But those who have been through the storm have learned there is one think we do control. And also have a fundamental responsibility for. Perhaps the greatest of these wise men is Viktor Frankl who famously wrote:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”

While I can not quote his entire work here (this is a very good time to tackle it though!) his observations are apropos: “Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

His greatest observation is this: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

We need to quit complaining. Second guessing is a waste of our energy. We control one thing. Ourselves. The call to action for each of us is simply find how we can be, in the words of Fred Rogers, “a helper.”

This will pass, like all things. For some of us easily and for others with a struggle and collapse. But let it change us and remind us that life is a gift, nothing guaranteed and our freedom lies in the decisions we make to find our invincible summer.

Again from Frankl “I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”

In the words of my favorite Jamaican proverb: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.”

May we come out the other side better, not broken. 🙏🏻♥️🇺🇸