The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness

In Sunday school, our teachers hoped that we would learn how to make better choices. This led to some unexpected lessons.

When I was seven years old, we were asked to draw a picture of our best future. At the time, I wished to live in a castle.

This being the 1970’s, all the other boys wanted to live in California and own a TransAm Firebird.

Not being into cars, I had to ask what a TransAm was. And not wanting to be the weird kid, I decided that I should want a TransAm, too. So, I drew a cool-looking car with a bright sun in the background, and maybe an avocado tree (because it was in California, after all).

Call it peer pressure. Or, more accurately, mimetic desire.

Today, in California (of course!) historian, literary critic, philosopher René Girard is a topic of conversation among Silicon Valley types. He writes that:

"Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires."

But there is a real problem that happens when we all want the same thing. There simply aren’t enough TransAms to go around. 

In Girard’s framework, we look for scapegoats and then blame them for everything we can’t have. 

This brings up two interesting questions…  

The first is… how do we know what we really want? Are our thoughts truly our own?

The second is… who are today’s scapegoats? And are they really at fault?

There is just SO much discontent right now. Especially when it comes to politics. It is SO tempting (and easy) to believe that someone else is responsible for the state of your well-being.

I'd encourage you to look back at your seven-year-old self and ask what made you happy before you cared what other people thought. Do more of that. Was it fishing? Or bicycling? Or building castles?