112. Despair on Purpose

Did the Rebbe really respond to people in his letters this way, Rabbi Freeman?

Did he actually use the phrase 'cheap excuse' to those who wrote him in despair?

Somehow that doesn't quite sound like any of you Chabadniks, let alone the Rebbe.

It sounds more like a response from someone who has lost their patience with others to the point of being fed up.

As for a sense of purpose being the best way to avoid despair:

A sense of purpose very well maybe the best way to overcome despair; to find something constructive withiin yourself despite life's circumstances.

To say though that a sense of purpose is the best way to avoid despair strikes me as sort of like trying to say that acts of tzedekah are the best way to avoid the needy.

?

there is are adages that should be pointed out. 1. Don't judge others until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
2. It's easier to talk the talk than walk the talk.

What you write here is strongly evident in my behavior at least...I have a lot of Despair in my life and it shows on my face and in my posture. So to make up for it I have watercolor paintings half done and embroidery projects half done and all kinds of readings that I just want to do but as long as I am piling up the projects so that I don't face the grief I feel I won't get anything done!

You're right, having a purpose in life does not bring despair, and I feel like giving charity in life is my purpose.

The statement made on this problem is extremely valuable to all humans. Especially in this cold and uncaring world these days.
Seniors are ignored and not respected, parents do not apologize to their children when they are at fault, babies are dropped off to day care at a very young age. That leaves you and me, I am a senior, busy volunteering daily, getting married again soon to a busy senior, enjoying life's pleasures, Go for it folks, do not stay behind and miss the chances of contributing something to this world.

Dear Rabbi

We readers are blessed to have a dose of reality from you every day. You enforce the impossibility of self pity, shirking responsibility on a soul level and for stagnation ..I believe we all need loving policing in these areas when life bites us.

Kind Regards and Deep Gratitude for these morning reminders about how life can be and what we need to remember minute by minute in order to create an existence of joy and fulfillment - not to mention taking a deeper note of those people we encounter along the way and our loved ones..

"Despair" is defined as a loss of hope. It usually refers to a specific situation - as in "He despairs of ever finding a job." I don't quite understand what it has to do with one's purpose in life.

When despair becomes all-encompassing then it's very likely a sympton of depression, which requires medical intervention.

I agree it can be used an excuse, although not a "cheap" one. I think it is valid, but to a point. At some point you need to get help or somehow lift yourself out of it.

1) I can't speak for Rabbi Freeman, but I can speak for myself. I have known deep despair for extended periods of my life. And today I know that, yes, despair is a cheap excuse for avoiding ones purpose in life.

2) I can't imagine how you would know how far from or how close to despair Rabbi Freeman was/is. Unless you know him personally?

(none of this is meant in any way to belittle people who experience despair. Despair is certainly a profoundly disabling force. But the solution is right there before us, expressed in these two simple elegant lines by Rabbi Freeman. Simple is not necessarily easy, but neither is hard necessarily complicated.

(we often fall into the "profundity trap": My problem is so profound, so the solution cannot be simple..! But simple things are often true. In fact, truth is often simple)