The anatomy of the American Dream: prelude
5.7.04 The end of ends is come and gone, a few seconds ago, in the instance of déjà vu.
A very heartfelt jolly belly bumbling welcome and hello to all you wonderful and amazing individual fabrics of intertwined body and soul. I wish to greet you in the best possible way—by a warm, well-deserved compliment. I don’t what I’d do without my close friends, people I can rely on for mostly anything, although circumstances in my life haven’t nearly reached anything desperate, such as the common circumstances in lesser fortunate countries. In some ways I’d like to know what it would be like to have to work in order to survive, living from day to day not knowing where the next meal would come. But I still thank God of the life I have here in the United States, of all places to have been born. And as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, I also would say that I would rather live here in this time period than be in any other place in any other time period, because God has given me a truly blessed life here.
Tonight at Sheetz I ran into a distant acquaintance, one who had gone to my church when I was younger. It reminded me of other acquaintances, closer ones, who I should reach out to (Err I’ve got to stop ending sentences with prepositions).
I see truly the shattered American dream portrayed in people’s lives at Sheetz. As you all know, a big part of Sheetz revenue lies in Alcohol and tobacco products. Not that they are inherently evil, but you can sometimes tell that the motives behind the use of these products are bad. I see people walk in on Friday, just getting off work, and I usually start off the transaction by asking them how they are doing. The usual response is “good”, spoken through a downcast countenance and a defeated tone of voice. Sometimes I’ll get an honest customer who says “terrible” or “just another week” or something similar. Then they hand over the beer for me to scan. I feel terrible. These people are living it up, surviving through the weekdays and living for the weekends, which leave them feeling so empty, or so I suppose. I suppose this because of their actions on Sunday and Monday, when the work week is staring them in the face.
Therefore, alcohol and tobacco products are used to relieve stress and create a falsified representation of reality, and mend the pains of the tiring workweek and the rest of life.
But there are others in the same category who don’t seem to carry these symptoms, who seem so confident and secure and happy all the time. Eat drink and be merry. For tomorrow they find themselves in their thirties, without good solid friends, without a healthy, nurtured relationship with a woman, and entering into the “real world”, a world where the brutality of modern occupations, fast track living, and rest is a farfetched fancy.
On an ending note, I’ll point out one simple truth of life that is truly apparent in American culture if we would just open our eyes and see the example of those who have walked before us.
Meaningless does not come from too little pleasure; on the contrary, it comes from growing weary of too much pleasure.
If one seeks a pleasure and does not seek the root or source of the pleasure, the pleasure burns up and ceases to satisfy over time. For example, seeking sexual relations outside of marriage, the pleasure of sex will burn up and cease to satisfy. Truly satisfy. I daresay.
I pray that you would seek to know who the one true God is. I daresay that a person’s relationship with God is the most important thing on the face of the planet.
Signing off for the evening,
Don Town.
p.s. Tell me your objections.
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