Tom, thank you for a sincere, thoughtful post. Crazy me, I've been listening to Viktor Frankl's "Man Search for Meaning" for the last couple days on my iPod. Frankl challenges the listener/reader with similar questions that you're doing with Greenleaf's ideas.
I don't have the exact words, but Frankl said something like, "Don't ask what life holds for you, but instead ask what does life expect of you?"
And like you say, to me he's saying not to expect there's a general answer out of some cliche Chicken Soup for the Soul book, but each of us will have an individual mission. Love for a spouse. Caring for our children. Retaining personal dignity and choice in ugly situations.
He quotes Nietzsche several times in the book; "If you have a 'why' in life, you can overcome any 'how'." Of course, he believed that finding his unique mission or his "why" even allowed him to figure out "how" to overcome Auschwitz.
Thank you for a nice surprise SL Blog poke this morning, and making me recall Frankl's wisdom, and think about my own mission from Greenleaf's perspectives.
Chris,
Thanks one more time for adding a nice twist and giving me some incentive to revisit a great book. It has been a long time since I read Viktor Fankl's great book and I don't think I ever finished Part 2. I just might have to revisit it.
It's when I learn about what others have struggled with, that reminds me that my own struggles are pretty simple in comparison. Thanks for the thoughts and the incentive.
Tom
My audiobook version of "Man's Search for Meaning" noted that "part 2" as you mention, has undergone an update. Don't quote me, but I think that any version published past 1982 has the update.
Part 2 is a discussion of his logotherapy techniques. One thing that I found fascinating is that he sometimes starts the logotherapy session out by asking a client, "Why do you not commit suicide?" He's not being cruel or odd, but instead trying to find the personal reason or "unique mission" on why the client lives his life, or at least get a starting point for the therapeutic discussion.
I've read the book a couple times in my life, and found the audio version hard to shut off. Fascinating.
As an aside, did Greenleaf make any audio or video recordings? Not just a narrator reading his books, but Greenleaf himself?
Chris,
The Greenleaf Center had one DVD (http://www.greenleaf.org/catalog/(DVD)%20%
20Robert%20K.%20Greenleaf:%20Servant-Leader.html?
color=1) that looks like it might have some footage of Greenleaf in it. Otherwise I'm not aware of any, but doesn't mean there isn't any.
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