Growing up listening to and reading stories of the Holocaust and other atrocities of World War II, I often wondered how people survived such situations. As a teenager, I read “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and found myself saying, “I get it.”
What struck me
was the importance of living the moment you are in as well as not obsessing
over things you have no control over. Basically it was my first look at what today
is called “mindfulness,” with a bit of Stoic philosophy thrown in.
In the midst of
the worst sort of misery-a gulag in the dead of winter-this prisoner achieves a
level of happiness and contentment that many wouldn’t have thought possible.
Laying a brick, carefully and deliberately not only keeps him warm but keeps
him focused, engaged and mindful.
I hadn’t re
read the book until I started working on the Solzhenitsyn project for the
Cavendish Historical Society (CHS). When I revisited it, I was blown away when
I read the last few paragraphs of the book.
Having
described in detail the challenges of being in a labor camp as a political
prisoner, Solzhenitsyn describes what his character does before falling asleep.
"Shukhov felt pleased with life as he went to sleep.
A lot of good things had happened that day. He hadn't been thrown
in the hole. The gang hadn't been dragged off to Sotsgorodok. He'd swiped
the extra gruel at dinnertime. The foreman had got a good rate for the
job. He'd enjoyed working on the wall. He hadn't been caught with
the blade at the search point. He'd earned a bit from Tsezar that
evening. He’d bought his tobacco. And he hadn’t taken sick, had got
over it.
Today there is a fair amount of research
in the field of positive psychology that support an association between
gratitude and an individual's well-being. In part, it helps to create and
sustain hope. Interestingly there is research that indicates that those who
count their blessings before going to bed actually sleep better.
As it turns out, a very successful and highly practiced form
of psychotherapy, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), has its roots in Stoic
philosophy. Since one of the most famous Stoic’s was Epictetus, who was born
into slavery, it’s not surprising that Solzhenitsyn would have drawn some
similar conclusions. We may not have control over our circumstances, but we can
control how we interpret them and how we respond to them.
In the midst of our “stay at home” order, “One Day in the
Life” is definitely worth a read. It’s short,
can be read in one sitting and can help re frame this time of Covid-19 by
reminding us that we do have control over how we respond as well as there are
positive things happening all around us that we can be grateful for.
There are six English translations of the book, with the one
by H.T. Willetts (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991) being the version
recommended by the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center.
PDF versions of the book exist on-line. While not the best translations, if that's all you can access now, check it out.
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