A few years ago, centenarian Eddie Jaku, who became known at the end of his life for his biography “The Happiest Man in the World,” died in Sydney. When reading the memoirs of this Jewish engineer, who was arrested by the Nazis in 1938 and interned in several concentration camps, happiness is conspicuous by its absence. However, his narrative serves to illustrate the decision he made by miraculously saving his life. After he managed to escape from the concentration camp in the last days of the war, he survived in a cave with snails, slugs and unhealthy water.
Infected with cholera and typhus, he crawled to the street with the last of his strength. The North American army found it. He weighed only 28 kilos and had a 35% chance of survival. In this uncertain state, he made a decision: “I promised myself: When I get out of this, I will be the happiest man in the world.” “I will be helpful, I will be kind.”
We don't know if this pact with himself helped Eddie's recovery, but throughout his life in Australia he did his best to be kind and helpful to everyone. Proof of this is that he would live to be 101 years old and receive awards and recognition.
In 2019, he stated that despite losing a large part of his family and friends in the concentration camps, he does not hate anyone, as he prefers to devote his energy to doing everything he can to help his community. Is this an exceptional case? Or can one be happy after experiencing extreme adversity?
In one of his most memorable sentences, Nietzsche said, “What does not kill us makes us stronger,” and some contemporary authors support this vision. In his essay “Coming Out of the Darkness,” psychologist Steve Taylor analyzed the cases of thirty people who were brought back to life by severe trauma.
One of the most shocking is that of Australian Gill Hicks, a workaholic architect who was a victim of the London Underground attacks in 2005. She was the last person to be pulled alive from the train's rubble. Due to her injuries, both of her legs were amputated. As he began his “second life,” as he put it, he began to appreciate every day, every hour and every minute in a completely new way. Perhaps because he was about to die, he was finally able to enjoy “every sip of water, every drop of tea or coffee, every bite of food and every glass of wine.”
In another testimony collected by Taylor, a suicidal man who jumped from the Golden Gate in San Francisco realized as he fell that he wanted to live. After learning in the lifeboat that he was among the slim 2% who survived the jump, he found that the depression that had dogged him relentlessly was gone. Suddenly he felt an enormous gratitude for the life that gave him a new chance.
His transformation matches the study conducted by psychologist David Rosen in 1975 on the ten people who managed to survive the fall from the Golden Gate. All reported experiencing a spiritual awakening during or shortly after the jump.
These are extreme examples of resilience, a process that neurologist Boris Cyrulnik describes as follows: “Trauma has angered the injured person and led him in a direction he would rather not have gone.” However, and given the fact that he is in a current that carries him away and drives him into a cascade of bruises, the resilient person must fall back on his inner resources (…), he must fight not to let himself be carried away by the natural gradient of trauma. “
Perhaps this is the secret of the people we have been talking about: when you cross the final limits of despair, you discover on the other side a strength and vitality that has been deafened by the noise of negative thoughts.
The lesson we can draw from these testimonies is that we should be able to appreciate life without being on the verge of losing it. Even if we feel like we are going through a tunnel, it will help us to know that there is light on the other side.
As the existentialist Albert Camus said, “In the middle of winter I finally learned that there was an invincible summer within me.”
An unexpected enthusiasm
— One of the most unique stories of adversity was published in 2012 by Olivier Bouyssi. After a serious accident in 1988, he developed several types of cancer due to a transfusion of HIV-infected blood.
— In his book he explains the constant visits to hospitals and the catastrophic diagnoses he received. Perhaps it was this temporary nature that drove him to live with wild joy and enthusiasm.
– We do not know what has happened to Bouyssi since this publication, but we do know that for at least a quarter of a century he was happy against all odds, as his memoirs were titled.
Francesc Miralles is an author and journalist who is an expert in psychology.
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