I don’t know why, but I got myself thinking of Voltaire’s Candide tonight, specifically the line “best of all possible worlds”. It got me thinking about the role that contentment plays in our lives, the way that we so often settle for things the way they are, or at least accept them to the point where maybe we don’t strive for better, instead conceding that the way things are is the best things are going to get. Or maybe we just get frustrated and give up. I don’t know.
I say “we” in order to be congenial to those that might read this, because I think that maybe that is what sets me apart from the masses, or at least is much of the thing that sets me apart. I do not settle for “good enough”, I always strive, I always fight, I always am trying to improve my situation in life.
I was in the gas station the other day when the clerk asked the man before me how he was doing. “I’m working, and I guess I have to if I ever want to be happy” he replied with the obvious tone that he did not love his job or have any feelings about it in that direction. And the thing is, I think most people are like that about most things. A lot of people work jobs just so that they can make ends meet, they get no joy out of it or whatever, they are, as was sang back in the 80’s “working for the weekend”. Maybe, like me, it is a short-term thing until thy can go to school or until the economy picks up and people start hiring again, but I think most people just assume that that’s the way life goes. And it isn’t just in work.
I see so many people dating and marrying people just because they figure they can’t find better, for whatever reason giving up even the opportunity to look around, even though something better would be there if only they’d open their eyes. I see people go to Church just because it’s easy to follow some regiment of religious dogma rather than search out for their own answers in life, even though their hearts will let them in on the secrets if they’d just take a leap of faith. I see people shrug off the way they’re treated for the vainest of reasons – ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, creed – and then just shrug it off as “that’s the way life goes” and never think twice of doing so. I see people vote for “the lesser of two evils” not even looking into the platforms of the other two hundred and some odd candidates that are running in the same election. I see people overlook chances of betterment of whatever kind just because they’re so wrapped up in excuses of their current situation that they’re completely oblivious to alternatives. I see people give up all that they believe just because it’s easier that way and they have the attitude of “hey, it works, and it’s not hurting me at all, why should I bother trying to fix it?” It’s all over the place in every facet of human existence, in every corner of so many peoples’ lives. And to top it all off, they pass off that contentment to themselves as being true happiness, whether on purpose or not, lying to themselves about themselves.
It’s like shopping for a home, you look and you look and you look and finally give in, even though it’s nothing even close to your dream home, not because you’re expectations are too high, they may even be humble, but because you’re sick of looking or somehow justify in your mind that that fixer-upper is in some way better than what you’ve been dreaming of from the time you were six.
I don’t understand that mentality. As long as there’s a chance, even a snowball’s chance in Hell, that I can make things better, I go for it, I take that risk. Maybe that’s foolish and naïve, but I could never live with myself knowing that I could have done better at some step in life’s journey but instead chose to settle for convenience and what was easy. Decisions, especially ones of love, life, and faith, are life-long and not easily changed, makers and breakers of the life you have always wanted to live, not things to be compromised and shrugged off. Certainly, the chances of making mistakes are greater – bridges, as they say, will almost inevitably be burned at some point – but the payoffs, if and when they occur, are gloriously grander than what that fear of failure could even begin to cast a shadow upon.
I could kick back and cultivate the garden that is before me, and it would be a grand garden indeed, but I know, or at least have a very strong feeling, that there’s more for me out there, bigger gardens, farms even, that I can dig my hands in the dirt of and be content. Truly content. Truly happy. There’s no need to settle for second best, or third best, or fourth best, ad infinitum. Strive for the best in everything that you do, force yourself to take chances, risks, and at some point they will pay off. That’s what I keep telling myself, and that is what I am now sharing with you, dear reader. I’m starting to believe it for myself, and it’s opening up whole new worlds for me.
I say “we” in order to be congenial to those that might read this, because I think that maybe that is what sets me apart from the masses, or at least is much of the thing that sets me apart. I do not settle for “good enough”, I always strive, I always fight, I always am trying to improve my situation in life.
I was in the gas station the other day when the clerk asked the man before me how he was doing. “I’m working, and I guess I have to if I ever want to be happy” he replied with the obvious tone that he did not love his job or have any feelings about it in that direction. And the thing is, I think most people are like that about most things. A lot of people work jobs just so that they can make ends meet, they get no joy out of it or whatever, they are, as was sang back in the 80’s “working for the weekend”. Maybe, like me, it is a short-term thing until thy can go to school or until the economy picks up and people start hiring again, but I think most people just assume that that’s the way life goes. And it isn’t just in work.
I see so many people dating and marrying people just because they figure they can’t find better, for whatever reason giving up even the opportunity to look around, even though something better would be there if only they’d open their eyes. I see people go to Church just because it’s easy to follow some regiment of religious dogma rather than search out for their own answers in life, even though their hearts will let them in on the secrets if they’d just take a leap of faith. I see people shrug off the way they’re treated for the vainest of reasons – ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, creed – and then just shrug it off as “that’s the way life goes” and never think twice of doing so. I see people vote for “the lesser of two evils” not even looking into the platforms of the other two hundred and some odd candidates that are running in the same election. I see people overlook chances of betterment of whatever kind just because they’re so wrapped up in excuses of their current situation that they’re completely oblivious to alternatives. I see people give up all that they believe just because it’s easier that way and they have the attitude of “hey, it works, and it’s not hurting me at all, why should I bother trying to fix it?” It’s all over the place in every facet of human existence, in every corner of so many peoples’ lives. And to top it all off, they pass off that contentment to themselves as being true happiness, whether on purpose or not, lying to themselves about themselves.
It’s like shopping for a home, you look and you look and you look and finally give in, even though it’s nothing even close to your dream home, not because you’re expectations are too high, they may even be humble, but because you’re sick of looking or somehow justify in your mind that that fixer-upper is in some way better than what you’ve been dreaming of from the time you were six.
I don’t understand that mentality. As long as there’s a chance, even a snowball’s chance in Hell, that I can make things better, I go for it, I take that risk. Maybe that’s foolish and naïve, but I could never live with myself knowing that I could have done better at some step in life’s journey but instead chose to settle for convenience and what was easy. Decisions, especially ones of love, life, and faith, are life-long and not easily changed, makers and breakers of the life you have always wanted to live, not things to be compromised and shrugged off. Certainly, the chances of making mistakes are greater – bridges, as they say, will almost inevitably be burned at some point – but the payoffs, if and when they occur, are gloriously grander than what that fear of failure could even begin to cast a shadow upon.
I could kick back and cultivate the garden that is before me, and it would be a grand garden indeed, but I know, or at least have a very strong feeling, that there’s more for me out there, bigger gardens, farms even, that I can dig my hands in the dirt of and be content. Truly content. Truly happy. There’s no need to settle for second best, or third best, or fourth best, ad infinitum. Strive for the best in everything that you do, force yourself to take chances, risks, and at some point they will pay off. That’s what I keep telling myself, and that is what I am now sharing with you, dear reader. I’m starting to believe it for myself, and it’s opening up whole new worlds for me.
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