It seems to me we all want to climb, we all want to be viewed as successes, by ourselves, and others. Yet, in a meritocracy, very few are finally “successes”. If everyone were a success, then the word would be diluted, wouldn’t it?
We need a book on how to be average. Yes, I know we’re all supposed to desire excellence in all we do, but isn’t good enough sometimes good enough? Now, I have seen pictures of some interesting wiring schemes in Mexico; that isn’t what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about rest from the relentless striving. We push and push and push. Some of us get to the top, most of us get somewhere, some of us, in the end, are forced in large measure to consider ourselves failures.
In all this, though, we need to figure out what matters. So many people want to fly away from being suburban wives and husbands, stuck in a career that is unsatisfying. We want to be LION TAMERS, until we figure out the true cost. But sometimes that is after something that was, is broken.
In my view, the relentless torrent of images we see in magazines and movies do little but torment us. Who are these people? Are they not themselves constantly trying to trade up? Are even they satisfied? Who is happy? Is it not that person who refuses to play the game, and who does their duty without complaint, while taking every opportunity that opens to express and experience happiness?
Suffice it to say, that doesn’t look–according to our normal criteria–like winning. This needs to change. Most of us are half mad with greed and lust, and don’t even know it.