It struck me very strongly this week that in the week that Auschwitz survivors mark Holocaust Memorial Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8482760.stm), I happen to be reading Viktor E Frankel's "Man's Search for Meaning". Dr. Frankel was an Auschwitz survivor. In the same week, news coming out of the disaster in Haiti cumulated with the story of a teenage girl who was pulled from the rubble of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, 15 days after the earthquake struck (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8484317.stm).
These events reminded me of a poem I wrote many years ago entitled 'Lie Down and Die' which I think I wrote around the time our TV screens, at least in Europe, where filled with images of Ethiopian children dying of starvation. The poem questioned why someone why they just didn't roll over and die when faced with some of the most horrible experiences that any being can bear. Dr Frankel uses his experiences in the concentration camps to try and explain why people hold on and how that can help those who feel they can't keep going. I will probably return to this discussion in some future post as the first part of the book is fascinating reading.
I am not sure but somehow these events this week may have finally made me commit to registering as an organ donor (http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/) and adding my picture and my 2 pence worth to the Wall of Life (www.walloflife.org.uk), after all I can't take anything with me when the 'deal is done'. If anything, there will be at least one reason for my existence, my life and like I said on the wall, I can't take it with me wherever I am going after this…..
The point though is that your life, all our lives, has to be worthwhile. Live it, live it and at the same time try to be content, be happy, it only comes round once. It is your duty to show to yourself and all those who look to you how to make life worthwhile and from that worth, hopefully, will come contentment and peace.
May you find the balance.
[First published on my Talking2Myself blog on specified date]