When I was young, I wanted to be great. I wanted to be important, successful and powerful. I wanted to be put onto a pedestal, where I could get the adulation and approval I craved.
I wouldn’t have put it that way then, of course. I just thought I wanted the things my culture presented as normal goals for someone like me. (I understand now the degree to which being raised by a narcissistic father left me craving approval and attention.)
As I’ve gotten more emotionally healthy and psychologically mature, I’ve been surprised to find out that my desires in life have changed. It’s not that I’ve “given up.” It’s not that I’m settling for something easy after failing to achieve things I wanted.
My desires today are healthier and far more likely to make me happy. You see, I want to be ordinary. I want to be a good man. I want to be kind and loving and content with the joy of living an ordinary human life.
But I’ve recently discovered a fascinating paradox. As an ordinary man, I won’t have the things this world and our culture have always promised me. I won’t have wealth or power or adulation. But it turns out that the people who gain what the world and our culture promise won’t have what I have.
They won’t have the peace and contentment and joy of a man who’s living a simple and ordinary life.
Powerful emotions come and go, so it’s worth noting if one stays
Why do presidents and candidates bother to release tax returns?
Briefly: Comic perfectly captured what I wrote about this weekend
There’s a lot to complain about, but miracle is so much goes right
Honesty, wisdom and insight say we have to live with uncertainty
Brutal truth is that we will never be able to fix all of world’s evils
‘Tolerant’ left seethes with hate if you don’t accept ‘gender theory’
Throwaway culture can leave us looking for something that lasts
Worshiping the ‘lesser evil’ will always allow evil to rule over you