The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the design thereof, if we follow that path that leads to it” (History of the Church, 5:134-135).
Victor Frankl teaches that happiness can come even amid life’s challenges
Dr. Victor Frankl was born in Austria in 1905 and is best known for his psychological memoir entitled Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl, 2006).
He spent three years in concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz, and chronicles his horrific story of survival. He muses about the quest for meaning, love, and courage in the face of difficulty.
Frankl theorizes that even in terrible circumstances, the most important freedom is an individual’s ability to choose one’s attitude and to keep smiling.
Here are some quotes from Frankl’s book that touched me deeply. “The prisoner who lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis. We all feared this moment - not for ourselves, which would have been pointless, but for our friends (italics added)” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 74).
He goes on to say, “The experience of camp life shows that a man does have a choice of action. . .We who lived in concentration camps remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way (italics added)” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 65-66).
There came a time when Victor had a chance to escape with a friend. He made a quick last round of his patients he had been helping, most of whom were dying. He kept his intentions private as he visited. One tired voice who guessed that it was his plan to escape asked him, “You, too, are getting out?” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 58). Victor denied it. An intense feeling of remorse had overcome him as soon as he agreed to escape with his friend.
Frankl then said, “Suddenly I decided to take fate into my own hands for once. I ran out of the hut and told my friend that I could not go with him. As soon as I had told him with finality that I had made up my mind to stay with my patients, the unhappy feeling left me. I did not know what the following days would bring, but I had gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before (italics added)” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 58-59).
I discovered that so many personal qualities that promote happiness are shown in these passages: kindness, unselfishness, loyalty, and decisiveness, to name a few.
Frankl also comments on the value of humor in life
“It is well known that humor, more than anything in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds (italics added)” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 43).
“The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of trick learned while mastering the art of living (italics added)” (Frankl, Man’s Search, 44).
I love my father. He taught me to be happy as I worked with him almost every day while growing up. He was born in 1909 in Beazer, Alberta. We had very little, but he was generally smiling and whistling. I was the youngest in a family of six. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no central heating, and no insulation in the house, but we worked hard together and were happy.
A family friend said he learned a valuable lesson from my father. He stated, “Leon was always singing or whistling wherever he went. One day, we were getting out logs in the timber, and after a backbreaking day, we headed for home. Leon’s wagon tongue broke as he was crossing a small creek. Instead of cussing about what had happened, he got calmly off the load and, while whistling and singing, he fixed the problem, got back on, and we were on our way again” (Family Records).
Many times, in our lives, something breaks, but we must learn how to whistle and get back on the wagon. The following poem suggests just that.
Just Whistle a Bit
Just whistle a bit, if the night be drear
And the stars refuse to shine:
And a gleam that mocks thee starlight clear
Within you glows benign.
. . .
Till the dearth of light in the glooming skies
Is lost to the sight of your soul-lit eyes.
What matter the absence of moon or star?
The light within is the best by far
. . .
Just whistle a bit, if your heart be sore;
‘Tis a wonderful balm for pain.
Just pipe some old melody o’er and o’er
Till it soothes like summer rain.
. . .
And perhaps ‘t would be the best in a later day,
When Death comes stalking down the way,
To knock at your bosom and see if you’re fit,
Then, as you wait calmly, just whistle a bit.
(Paul Lawrence Dunbar, “Just Whistle a Bit,” from A Poem to Read Aloud Every Day, ed. Liz Ison, 2023, 47)
Everyone in this life is guaranteed the pursuit of happiness, but how we achieve it is up to us. It is often a challenge to find it within ourselves, but it is rarely found in other places.