Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who was probably best known for introducing the world to the psychological concept of flow, was a child in Europe when WWII broke out. He survived, but his brother was sentenced to a gulag in Russia. He basically disappeared, and everyone assumed he was dead. Decades later, during the diplomatic thaw between the East and West, he was released. Gulag prisoners were still looked on with suspicion, and he had to take any job he could get. As Johann Hari says in his book, Stolen Focus, this was a man who had very few opportunities to find flow in his life.
Except that he did. When both men were in their 80s, Csikszentmihalyi visited his brother who had become fascinated by crystals. He showed one to Csikszentmihalyi and said that he had gotten up one morning to study it and got lost in its formation. The next thing he knew it was dark, and his first thought was that a storm was coming. But no, the sun was setting. He had studied the crystal all day.
Hari’s book is on focus, and I admit I was jealous of someone who could get that involved in a project without taking at least forty breaks to check email and social media (and have some snacks). But the story stayed with me for another reason.
There is a saying attributed to George Eliot, although it can’t be found in any of her writings: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” I’m not sure that is always true, but I do believe that it is never to find meaning.
If we are lucky enough to have jobs that put us in a flow state, that’s great. But finding meaning can come from anywhere. When we turn off the TV and turn away from Snapchat, there are all sorts of things out there that can engage us.
Let’s start looking.
JollyLibrarian 