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.
Going through old relics tells me I’m still same person I used to be
It’s when we create art — and create a better world — that we’re most like our Creator
It often takes approach of death to wake us up from a dead-end life
Love & Hope — Episode 12:
Homeless honor student thrown into jail for missing too much school
Who were you before someone told you who you were supposed to be?
There are three kinds of lonely — and I don’t know which this is
Dems, GOP name Charlotte Clinton and future Bush baby for 2056
Sabans remind me that choice of partner can be a key to success