My Parents’ Attitude

Good morning…

Last Sunday, our class discussed Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl. On Monday, I blogged about the beloved book in our morning message, We Suffer and Survive. On Tuesday, I got two emails, back to back, highlighting Frankl’s wisdom again, encouraging us to Savor Life’s Soup from the bottom of our soul.

Then, on Wednesday night in our class, we happened upon Victor’s words again in Margaret Silf’s The Other Side of Chaos.

“Victor Frankl, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, asserts that there is one freedom that can never be taken away from us – the freedom to choose our attitude in any given situation. His wisdom is drawn from his own experience in a concentration camp, where he tested this freedom of choice to the limits. In every situation, we have a choice about attitude, if not about action. In particular, we can choose passivity of the victim mind-set, the ‘poor me’ that feeds on sympathy but never moves on, or we can choose an attitude of actively seeking ways to draw good” out of the tough challenges of life. (103)

On Thursday after class, I hopped on a plane to Ohio to spend Valentine’s Day weekend with my parents, my siblings, and our 1975 foreign exchange student from Norway, Margit, and her young adult son, Jakob. Margit has been wanting to return to the states to visit my parents for a long while now, but, at age 86, my mom has faced nearly three hard years of health challenges. Falls. Broken bones. Multiple surgeries. A stroke and sepsis. ICU. Colostomy bags. Months of slow recovery in the care center and their cozy villa in the senior living community. From walking to wheel chair to cane to walker. My mom has faced three difficult years. Right by her side through it all, my dad has grown into a very loving, attentive caregiver. Finally, my parents felt “back to normal enough” to welcome us in for a special weekend.