After explaining that the outer limits of life (death) do not detract from the meaning of life, Frankl explains that the inner limitations of human imperfection give meaning to your existence.
You cannot do what other people do, but they also cannot do what you can do. Just as the eye is limited in its function but can only serve the whole organism by being an eye, so you can only contribute to the community of humankind by being your unique self. The more different one piece of tile is from the others, the more incomplete the mosaic is without it. Your differentiation makes you an irreplaceable part of the whole. (pp. 69-70)
I find this to be a beautiful image. To me it represents the critical shift that changes the nature of interaction in a group or interpersonal encounter from disinterested politeness to rapt attention.
Why should we listen to what someone else has to say? To quote the Dude, “That’s just your opinion, man.”
We listen out of respect for the other person. The adage is: Seek to understand and only later to be understood. Listening requires reflecting back to the other and checking for accurate understanding.
It’s also in our own self-interest to do this. If we want someone to hear our perspective, we have to get into his mind – set first and see how he sees things. Get him to say ‘yes’ to something and take it from there. This is based on the premise that it’s a good idea to elicit people’s cooperation if we want to work together.
What Frankl is talking about here is different. It’s not about diplomacy or about being nice. If I believe that every individual is unique and irreplaceable, that this person has something that I don’t have, and that his contribution makes the mosaic complete, then this means that I will not only agree, but beg to hear his opinion. My perspective is incomplete without it! Similarly, I will be cognizant that his perspective is incomplete without mine.
Within this mutual eagerness to learn from each other, we both transcend to a higher consciousness that incorporates us both.
So when I am teaching, I want to hear what each student is thinking because something is missing from my understanding without it. That doesn’t mean participants can talk about irrelevancies or monopolize the conversation or use the forum as a springboard for venting.
It does mean that the insight that will come out of this encounter is one that no one can foresee, and which surely will enrich us all.