Everyone dreams of that moment when the world suddenly jolts into intense clarity. It is the american dream to be successful, to find importance in ourselves and our surroundings. When reflecting on the american dream we notice the black an white blueprint for success. A wife and kids, a quiet life in suburbia where you drive a nice 15 minutes to your 9-5 job that pays handsomely and then you come home to beaming faces sitting in the front porch swing below the century old maple trees.Ok so maybe I just described "Leave it to Beaver" but let's be honest, how much has really changed since then? Maybe it is a loft in NYC instead of quiet suburbia...Maybe it is two dogs instead of kids or maybe it a flight attendant instead of a 9-5 blue collar job. Taking all of this into consideration, regardless of how different it may appear on the outside, it is still the same life. No matter how the outside appearance changes it will always be the "American Dream", a dream and never reality. As long as we follow this blueprint of success we will never be satisfied because the American Dream is based on a mindset but instructs us to achieve this mindset through material objects. This can't happen, it's impossible, the physical whorl will never satisfy us. God made us in his image, there is a part of us that is beyond this world that needs more than this world has to offer. To truly be satisfied we have to accept Christ into our lives. Let me clarify that I did not say "Fill your lives with religion" or "monotonous rituals". Instead fill your life with the essence of christ, the core of his teachings, fill yourself with love.
I have spent my life pursuing the same goals as everyone else. That is what I was taught and that is all I knew until several months ago when I started to entertain the thought of jumping. I didn't have suicidal thoughts, it was society that I wanted to leave. For a while and even today I think that to leave society it requires a physical detachment and at 2am I will find myself sometimes looking up airline tickets to random places around the world. What's holding me back? Well, it's the love. Breaking from the flow of society may be the first step to gaining satisfaction in life but that is not the end. The second part is more important and far more complex. We must focus our energy, our lives on love. Relationships, compassion to those who are nameless, noteworthy and even nasty. Love bridges all conflicts, all obstacles. What can keep us from being satisfied is we love others. If we invest our lives into loving our family, our friends, our children... we won't have time for the other nonsense that fills our lives. Traffic jams and fights and political poppycock will become obsolete things of the less noble past. If we love, the American Dream will become a reality and we will transcend all of our expectations of happiness.
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