Blessing the fish heads

In group this afternoon, the therapist spoke of Viktor Frankl.  He was one of the survivors of the Nazi death camps during WWII and a man of amazing resiliency.  Every member of his immediate family, except for his sister, died in the camps, including his wife. 

Frankl is best known for finding a reason to live despite all the reasons he was given to just give up and die like millions of others did in the concentration camps.  In simple terms, by shifting his perspective, Frankl found meaning and blessing in even the meanest and harshest of conditions.  When he was served fetid water with rotting fish heads as his meal, he blessed the fish heads for giving him the energy he needed to continue living.  As another great man would say, Frankl "never, never, never, never [did] give up". 



The visual of Frankl blessing what many of us would have taken as a curse has stuck in my mind.  I can't recall how many times I've felt bitterly sorry for myself for far less deprivations, but it really is about perspective and sometimes, rather than better fortune, we simply need a better outlook; a survivor's outlook. 

I remember a mission trip to Guatemala in my teens.  We went into the interior of the country, away from the large cities and into the small villages.  The land was beautiful, but the people were materially poor.  In the village we stayed, there was no hot water and the sewage system was an open canal that ran through the middle of the village and past the only restaurant in town where we ate our meals of tortillas and honey every night.  Despite the poverty, the people had a joy and an easy warmth and hospitality that I haven't often found since.  In that sense, they were far richer than anyone I've ever known.

I wish for that in my life and in my daughter's life; the ability to be grateful for the smallest gifts in life.  I will raise her and remind myself  to always bless the fish heads.