“I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.” ~ Viktor Frankl

I did my thesis work on the relationship in Viktor Frankl and Aristotle’s discovery process and how the two arrived at the same understanding of the meaning of life. At the time of my thesis, it was an academic effort; knowledge gained was in my head and nothing in my heart or gut. Then again, I was in my twenties and living a life pretty well structured and ordered.

In the article attached, Nicolas Cole writes about the twenty things we realize we should have done more of, but we only discover the reality later in life.

As I read the twenty, a few stood out, mostly because I am in my seventy’s. I wondered how many of these Nicolas Cole would experience as they evolve throughout his life. At any rate, he is spot on with his twenty. I am sure there are one or two in the list we can relate to, reuse in our teaching, preaching, and living out the kingdom.

Most of us on this list, whether you are clerical, laity, or a combination thereof, 🙂 have spent most of our lives working for a cause, the kingdom, peace, justice, ecology, and most definitely, the greater good: Eudaimonia as Aristotle would say or a “will to meaning,” for Viktor Frankl.

Richard Rohr speaks and often writes about three phases: Order ~ Disorder ~ Reorder. When I did my thesis, I was in a world of “Order.” The reason what Artistotle and Frankl taught me was all academic and cerebral. It was not until I experienced “disorder” the time of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ that the ‘will to meaning’ and the ‘greater good’ began to enter the heart and gut. For some time, as Frankl would say, we are in a state of ‘logotherapy‘. When we enter into ‘reorder.’ We come to understand Aristotle and the objective meaning of ‘Eudaimonia’ and what Frankl discovered in the ‘will to meaning’ is in the world rather than within man or his psyche, as though it were a closed system.

So take a look at the twenty Items Nicolas Cole writes about, see how many you have experienced in your life, can relate to in your world that you discover life and the will to meaning.

And as Nicolas Cole says:

“Growing up is the realization that you are both the sculpture and the sculptor, the painter and the portrait. Paint yourself however you wish.”

Here is the link:

https://medium.com/better-advice/20-things-most-people-learn-too-late-in-life-23674cdbd75c

View at Medium.com