A little more on Vicktor Frankl. When I interviewed him I was so into the positive thinking we-can-create-our-own- reality process, the mind over matter mode - that I kept talking to him about "creating meaning" in our life. His book you know is Man's Search for Meaning. Well, he kept correcting me. I still have the tape. My brother got what Frankel meant right away and teased me about it because I just didn't get it.
When I started doing nature activities, one day I had this flash - Oh, finding meaning is like following natural attractions! Instead of going into the forest thinking about what I want to see or the experience I want to have, finding (discovering or encountering) the experience that attracts me.
I've been amazed at how people I do nature activities with do this too. They say something like - Well, I went out in nature to enjoy the flowers, but they weren't out yet. So I'll go back next week end. Or, I went out to enjoy the sun but it started to rain.
Of course, Frankel was an expert at understanding such distinctions from his experience in the concentration camps. I suppose that if you remained attached to what you thought you wanted, you would never have survived there.
I agree with creating in the here and now. Life is so creative and so are we. It is life actually. so once again, words fail, but the experience is there for us.
A REACTION: A quote I liked from the readings: "In this regard, there are no substitutes for the real thing. People must connect with genuine nature or suffer from the imperfections of the substitutes we create for it." Indeed, even "fresh air" is so much more alive than an air conditioner!
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