"I know you are just a reporter, but you used to be a person." -- from the movie Deep Impact
I am really amazed with people who think that their jobs, their fame, their titles and power are forever. I know that there is some intoxicating about all those things and yet there is also something really toxic about that them. A lot of people, and I have seen a lot of people think that their powers and titles will endure forever. They act as if there were no tomorrow. They burn all their bridges, sacrifice all their friendships and worse, compromise all their values and principle for the sake of power and wealth.
There is a story about a 50-year-old man who was sitting in a bar and he was grumbling about his life. He started talking and comparing himself to his friends. At one point he said, "they made it, I didn't." The question is made what? What did his friends really make?
Money? You know what the problem with money is? After awhile you become its slave instead of being its master. You want to live like that? You constantly search for money, your compulsion is to get and get and get money. That is making it? Your measure of success for yourself is now going to be determined by how much money you have. Is that making it? Is that success? Well honestly you can have it. A person can be the richest person and yet still remain the poorest. The poorest can be the richest too in case we forget. Do you honestly want to live chasing money all your waking hours? Do you want to worry about how much you will be getting and how much you will be spending? Is that the way you want to live? That is not living. That is not making it.
Power? The problem with power is once you taste it, it becomes a hunger. A need. What may have started as a gift or an act of service has now become a need, a desire that needs to be fed daily. Recently I saw one of my former colleagues and I was so shocked with her appearance. She looked so thin and she was no longer smiling. She looked drawn out and sullen. She looked tired. This was in stark contrast years ago when she was quite robust and smiling. She always had a cheerful smile and that was why I was so shocked when I saw her. The lines on her face were palpable. And yet she occupies a high position which probably had taken its toll on her. The obvious question is, if that was the effect on her, why not just quit? You tell me. But is that success? Are you willing to look like a zombie to keep your position? Well it seems that some people do. And for what? Really, for what? I find it so disturbing how some people I know have given up and turned their backs on their friends for titles and positions. And I really pity them because once those things are taken away and they will be taken away one day, what will happen to them? What will happen to people who have identified themselves so much with their titles and positions? You want to live like that? You want that your source of happiness to be the whims of another person? You want to live tiptoeing? You want to live in constant fear that what you say could be the last thing you will ever say as a favored one? That is making it? That is success? A prostitute is probably morally better than those who sell their principles. At least a prostitute only sells her body and when she is done she can always take a bath. But for someone who sells his or her virtues and principles there is no bath there. One cannot wash away the prostitution of one's soul. And again, that is success? That is making it?
Some people get so drunk with power and fame that they cannot see beyond them. They start to delude themselves that they are so powerful and that it will last forever. You can have all the money in the world and you can still be impoverished. You may have all the titles and the positions but you can be so weak and powerless. Fame and tiles do not buy character. Money does not buy you integrity. We are no the center of the universe and the world does not revolve around us. The world will go on without us. The sooner we understand and realize that, the better it is for us.
The real wealthy person in life is the one who does not need anything. The freest person is the one who knows that all attachments are nails impaled on your soul to prevent you from soaring. The man who needs nothing, the man who seeks nothing, the man who is nothing is everything. That is making it. That is freedom. But then again, that is another story.
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