An Equation For Keeping Hope Alive

Avatar The Last Airbender and Viktor Frankl on Despair vs. Hope

Prince Zuko was ready to give up. In Avatar The Last Airbender, he’d been banished from home and tasked with capturing “The Avatar” if he was ever to be allowed to return home. Confiding in his wise uncle, a man named Iroh, Zuko confessed he was ready to give up on his quest.

“-there is no hope at all...” Zuko sulks.

Iroh puts a hand on Zuko’s shoulder, “NO ZUKO! You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.”

What is inner strength though…and where does it come from? Iroh doesn’t really provide a clear answer. Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl does though, in his book, Man’s Search For Meaning.

I’d like you to hop over to the Geeky Stoics YouTube channel and go a little deeper on this with me. In the video, I’ll lay out Frankl’s understanding of inner strength and also his equation for what creates Despair — the kind of despair Uncle Iroh alluded to in his encouragement of Zuko.