In the earlier part of this book, we saw that out of Pandora’s box came all the evils of the world. This was Zeus’s “gift” to the wise, beautiful girl who had everything already. In the story, it was meant to be an act of revenge, but in both Frankl’s and Zupan’s case, the “evil” was really a powerful force for good in their lives, one way or another. It’s curious how many people who’ve experienced profound loss and change would have it no other way—and they certainly wouldn’t choose to go back and live a more mediocre life!

Jean-Dominique Bauby is another example, and you may already be familiar with his story if you’ve watched the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, or read the book that inspired it. At the young age of forty-three, Bauby experienced what many of us have only glimpsed in our nightmares: he suffered a stroke and fell into a coma that left him, twenty days later, utterly unable to speak, or to move his arms or legs. He could not even move his mouth.