by Batya Yaniger
One of the important marketing rules is imagining you’re on an elevator, the doors and soon closing and you’ve got half a minute to say something that captures the essence of what you do. Here is my logotherapy “elevator statement.”
The basis of logotherapy is that everything has a reason, and whether or not we know what the reason is, everything can be used for a good purpose.
We grow by getting in touch with what makes us human – our conscience, our love, our choice, our responsibility and our values.
Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy 
My elevator statement would be much the same: “Everything has a reason and that’s why it’s so important to trust in the goodness of “life”… becoming more aware of what’s going on around me… how things start to fit together… the potential each new life event is promising… the good that always exists… the possibilities that are available… TRUST-TRUST-TRUST! All life is a GIFT if viewed through the logotherapeutic lens and embraced for the existential truths and values that exist in any given situation.
I refuse to believe that everything happens for a reason. Everything does have a cause, or many causes. Things fall to the ground because of gravity, that is a cause. But to say that children are abused, that wars happen, that centuries of unanswered suffering is because it’s in someone’s grand tapestry? That is a cruel universe I refuse to believe. Life is not a gift, it simply IS. You would not say life is a gift if you’d died minutes after birth from terrible disfigurements, or lived the life of an insect with no awareness save instinct. I do believe we can find a subjective purpose from our circumstances, but that does not mean our circumstances occured because of some larger reason.
Your argument makes a lot of sense. Lately I have come to what I believe is a more accurate definition of meaning. The meaning of any occurrence or condition is the opportunity it gives you to do something valuable in the world. It’s not up to us to try and figure out why something happens but rather what for. What good purpose can this serve? I still believe that everything happens for a reason even though we can’t possibly know what that reason is. And sometimes the reason is just because this is an imperfect world or because this is what happens when human beings have free will and can make all kinds of mistakes and do all kinds of horrible things. Once there is gravity, something dropped from a skyscraper will fall and break. Yet even with all the inevitable natural consequences of things, I believe there is a Creator who not only created but continues to run, guide and direct the world towards a positive goal. And I also believe that as human beings we have been endowed with the ability to find something good and purposeful to do in response to suffering..I’m interested in hearing if this makes sense to you.
Hello again,
First, I wanted to apologize for my bluntness in the last post. Not until later when reading again did the tone come through, and it is too harsh.
I did read your reply, and understand your feelings. Being a religious person, the relationship between you & Creator starts with faith in divine benevolence. I respect that argument & will not debate it.
If a Creator were to become evident to me, I would prefer an utterly indifferent deity, of cold logic and stoicism. A creator which truly behaved as though “All Is For The Purpose” seems far more benevolent than someone who answers some prayers while ignoring others.
Peace to you!