Jourard – Life has value as long as a person has “meaningful projects”

The father of one of our closest friends passed away at the end of April at the age of 92. To hear it told, he’d lived a very full and rich life. One of the things he left for the generations to follow was a collection of poems, sayings, and other bits of wisdom he’d gathered since he was 17 entitled, “Bread for the Journey”. Every once in a while, I’m going to pick something from there to share with you.

The first is an excerpt from Sidney Jourard‘s 1971 book entitled, The Transparent Self:

“A person lives as long as he experiences his life as having meaning and value and as long as he has something to live for — meaningful projects that inspire him and invite him to move into his future. …

[People] die after the loss of money, work, their beauty, their sexuality, or a loved one, or status when they discover they are no longer the persons they believed themselves to be. …

When this ground for his existence is outgrown or lost, a person may begin to die. It is time for him to stop that way of life and invent a new way. Society needs a new specialist, one who helps people find new projects when their old ones which made life livable have lost their meaning.”

Other excerpts from "Bread for the Journey"

More Friday pot pourri