The last human freedom

I've been reading Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" lately. I've been procrastinating starting it because it's his personal account of his experiences in Auschwitz and other concentration camps...a little heavy for my rainbows-and-butterflies preferences. But, how can I possibly hope to raise two sons living exclusively in sunshine and happy endings? I wanted some perspective, preferably before the testosterone surges hit.

The male mind and drive is fascinating to me, and so different from my own biological drive. I'm quite happy to let biology allot men and women different ways of thinking on a whole (please allow me this gross over-generalization as I am aware of exceptions to any rule) but feel compelled to understand where it's coming from and what I can reasonably expect as my own two sons grow. And so I read books of personal accounts by men.

For my own benefit, I found it intriguing that Frankl boils down the last of human freedoms. He and his comrades, who had had everything taken from them, had suffered such a surreal human existence for so long, decided that there is one thing that no man can take from you. The last human freedom is the attitude you choose to meet your challenges with. No one can take from us the freedom to choose our attitude, regardless of whether it's your frustration that you life and identity have been stripped from you and you exist one shade away from starvation or brutal murder, or that the grape in your smoothie didn't blend fully and cause an unpleasant sensation and lump in your mouth.

Sure helps with my perspective on the day. And a hearty thank you to all the men and women involved in making it possible for the latter of the two problems to be mine. Thank you for the things you do or have done in protection of our country, and more sacredly, our opportunity to make memories in a land of peace.