Book Review: ...Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl

This book is an odd combination of two halves. A first hand account of Nazi death camps from Frankl's perspective as a prisoner in the first half followed by Logotherapy in a nutshell.

The first half is heavy stuff as the reader is shown example after example of the brutality and hardship.

Some of Frankl's assertions especially some details around Logotherapy don't ring true to me. But the core propositions definitely resonated with me. For example, one quote that stood out to me is, "Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue." Frankl asserts a person chasing happiness wont find it. A person who has a purposes and is pursuing that end, or at least surviving hardship now to pursue it later, can achieve happiness. Someone without purpose, might try to fill their existential void with power, money or gratuitous sex. What that all sounds like short term fun, I'll take a life with actual meaning for 100, Alex.

Yes, thanks to this book I actually now know what existential means. Subject matter aside, you can tell that Frankl isn't a native English speaker. Parts are fascinating, but parts were an effort to focus through. Some of that is subject matter, some is phrasing. Frankly, I'm not sure if this book was edited or not. From a subject matter point of view, I seriously wonder how the Logotherapy in a nutshell part of the book would read through the eyes of a modern day mental health professional. How much ever became accepted? How much of that has stood the test of time?

The version I read is 165 pages including addendum by Frankl and has a forward and afterword both by other authors.

No Pope!

The pope is coming to the United States and some folks hoped his trip would include a stop in our neighborhood. I commented on the effort in a prior post.

It is interesting to see the current bishop express disappointment. This guy is is what I've come to tag in my head as, "Benedictine" or, "Team Benedict". To me, that means prioritizing liturgical enforcement, inflexible judgment and politics over empathy and compassion. He plays the media game fairly well but I think he's probably happy Papa F isn't passing through. Off the top of my head...

• Press release against someone coming to speak at a college on a topic where everyone with sense should agree.
• Churches financially participating in WISDOM forbidden.
• And why is it, exactly, that Father Guy Blair is no longer in town, Bishop? I didn't personally know him but remember his passionate advocacy on behalf of the homeless very well. I was on the receiving end of it often enough.

And that's just what I know about as someone who does not pay attention to he local diocese. I can't help but wonder if Francis would've spanked Ricken on the way through...

Threenager indeed.

So it's not just my three year old!

1. You live in constant fear of how to cut the shape of their sandwich or toast. Do they want triangles today, rectangles, squares? And when they do tell you, they change their mind right after you cut it.
2. They say things like (with hands firmly placed on hips), "I don't want to clean up, I want to do what I want to do!"
3. You go through three or more wardrobe changes a day. Please just pick a princess already!
4. Your child goes boneless the second you remind them that a transition is coming, especially when they are asked to stop playing. By the way, when was this ability given to children? You know, lay limp and double your body weight so mom can't move you. It's a talent reminiscent of a possum playing dead...
5. They run away from you when it's time to get dressed, or leave a play place, or do anything they deem unnecessary. In fact running away from you is their favorite activity. (Cardio workout?)
6. To nap or not to nap, that is the question. A threenager's answer will always be emphatically "NO!" Unless of course it's time for school, and they crawl into bed because they're "tired."
7. They want three of everything because they are three.
8. At red lights they yell, "Go... GOOO!" Threenagers do not possess patience.
9. peaking of the car, you have to leave 10 minutes earlier so they can buckle their own car seat by their "OWN SELF!"
10. You realize they'll be a great trial lawyer one day when they've just negotiated their way out of a timeout.

Bad CEOs, bad boards, bad investors, or what?

As I read this article about bad CEOs I noted a repeating theme of the CEO being let go "too late" to save the company.

I have no reason to doubt the CEO quality level assertion. What I don't understand is where were the boards of directors? If a CEO is driving a company off the rails, toward a cliff for years and years, one would hope the board-- even one hand picked by the CEO-- would step up and do something about it.

Where were these board members? Shouldn't they have acted sooner to save these companies? Did they implicitly endorse the behaviours and actions of the CEO by not providing boundaries or feedback on direction?

Of course, then you have the other end of the spectrum where activist investors who push their own short term perspective. This guy might be good for shareholder ROI but he probably terrible for users and employees. Dude, I get that you want an ROI but there are people behind those numbers in your ROI spreadsheets. If an activist investor like this elects a board that then shreds the company, I guess then it's the fault of the owners who elected the board in the first place, no?