The Human Condition

Senior Talk

“How’s the needle work coming?”
“I’m almost done.”
“What will it say?”
“’Growing old ain’t for sissies!’”

Jone Johnson Lewis delivered a recent Platform talk at the Northern Virginia Ethical Society in which she discussed the three pains that Felix Adler, founder of Ethical Culture, described as fundamental to the human condition. I would have described them as my spouse, my kids, and my parents. On the other hand, they have also been my greatest joy. Adler posited that the human condition suffers three fundamental pains because we (1) want personal significance while knowing we are merely motes in time; (2) long to improve a world we see beset by unending calamities; and (3) try to live up to our ideals despite our imperfections. Don’t panic. Recall for a moment the sweet pleasure of an infatuation that grew into love. Now recall the stomach-wrenching feelings when you thought you were rejected by your sweetheart. Could you experience the one without risk of experiencing the other? Perhaps our aspirations and despairs are inextricably intertwined. For example, love, childbirth, and learning offer joyful possibilities along with the likelihood of great pain.

Self-worth and relationships are the balms that help steer me through the human condition.

Marv Friedlander
Member, Northern Virginia Ethical Society