The Beautiful Bracelet & The Meaning of Life

A few years after World War II a doctor examined a Jewish woman who wore a bracelet made of baby teeth mounted in gold. "A beautiful bracelet," the doctor remarked. "Yes," the woman answered, "this tooth here belonged to Miriam, this one to Esther, this one to Samuel..."

She mentioned the names of her daughters and sons according to age. "Nine children," she added, "and all of them were taken to the gas chambers." Shocked, the doctor asked, "How can you live with such a bracelet?" Quietly, the woman replied, "I am now in charge of an orphanage in Israel."

Meaning may be squeezed out even from suffering and that is the very reason why life remains potentially meaningful in spite of everything. Transcending good and evil, this woman found people to live for, she found suffering to eliminate and she found pain of others to ease. A pain she must have known so well.

Rather than fleeing from further suffering that brought unimaginable pain, she ran towards alleviating pain in others and found meaning and purpose in the "problem" that she faced. Meaningful living means being able to adopt a constructive attitude toward suffering rather than being crushed by it.

Think of your own suffering and pain. Is there meaning, purpose and value that can be found in whatever hardship you've experienced? Joseph Campbell once said, "Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning."