A young lady with a new Airstream trailer stayed at the campground for a few days. She wasn’t social with those around her, but did chat with me a couple times, mostly to find out local hikes to go on and attractions to visit. I noticed that she was reading a book and asked what it was about. She explained that it was a collection of American Indian spiritual beliefs. The section that she was in was about balance in one’s life, not being too lazy or too hungry for power or possessions. I had been pondering on similar thoughts, but dealing with being content or ambitious. We had a great talk for a half hour, though my mind isn’t the best at retaining what all we talked about. The next day, she brought over a gift, a bag of my favorite chips, Chili-cheese Fritos. I had mentioned to her about the terrible campers who had been loud and very messy, but left me a $15 tip and a bag of those same chips as an apology. I appreciated the sentiments.
Anyhow, I’ve continued thinking about the good and bad of both contentment and ambition. They each are laudable traits to have. It’s nearly impossible to get anywhere in life without at least some ambition. One should want to improve their position; financially, location, job or business, friends, physically, morally, and so on. Even those who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth still have to make an effort on all areas, besides finances. The great leaders all had to be ambitious to get where they ended up; whether in business, politics, religion, philosophy, sports, etc. They wanted to excel and had the drive to do so. But contentment is also to be desired. The stress of trying to get ahead of everyone else, is hard on the body and mind. Being negative about about the circumstances that one is in, is mostly counterproductive too. Honestly, just being born in American puts us ahead of most of the world’s population in privilege. Even those in poverty in the US have it good compared to someone living in a slum in New Dehli, growing up in a jungle in Africa, or being under communist rule in Cuba. Most of us can live well, with some self discipline and awareness of the good things surrounding us.
But contentment can easily become laziness, with no attempts to be a better person. Visualize a fat person sitting on an old couch in a rundown trailer, wearing filthy clothes, surrounded by fast food wrappers, drawing unemployment or welfare, watching mindless entertainment on TV, never bothering to vote in elections, and basically being a drain on society. That may be contentment, but it has been corrupted into evil. Same with ambition. Ambition can lead to a hunger for more power, more money, more public acclaim, more possessions. It becomes greed, without any restraint from one’s conscience. It’s no coincidence that so many that reach the top of their field are psychopaths, from numbing the little voice of moderation and always reaching for more.
Imagine a chart with the middle being neutral, the perfect balance of contentment and ambition. Then think of people going to the extreme on either side of that middle ground. I can’t think of much worse than being associated with either of those, being very greedy or very slothful. But I do see them all the time. This partially why I don’t have many friends, because of no wish to be around people like that.
I do lean more towards contentment than ambition, and have most of my life. The few times that I got ambitious, things turned out badly. I wanted to be a pastor and pursued that for awhile, getting a degree in theology and being a youth pastor/missionary for a few years. I wasn’t good at it and quickly became disillusioned with those in the same in the same profession as me. I decided to build a dream house twice, spending a lot of time and money doing so, only to lose large amounts of money and suffering frustration. I was trained to be a construction foreman, but greatly disliked the extra work and stress of being the leader of indifferent workers. Several times, I attempted to win the heart of women who were out of my league in looks and youth, only to be spurned after they drained me of money or found someone they liked better. So, ambition didn’t work for me. Though I still have small ambitions; like getting back in great shape (for my age), visiting other countries, building up savings for retirement, writing a condensed book of my life, maybe having one last romance (I never learn).
Contentment is more my forte, since I truly enjoy setting my goals low. I’m totally fine with simple food, living in a van, having few close friends, keeping possessions until they are fully worn out, enjoying nature, reading books for entertainment, being mostly unplugged from society. I do drift into laziness at times, especially during wintertime when I’m not working a job. But even then; I stay clean, don’t bother anyone, keep up with studying subjects that interest me, don’t become wasteful of my meager savings, and do my best to stay in a positive mindset. There is room for improvement, but I haven’t met a perfect person yet, except for perfect idiots. Just a few thoughts that have been percolating in my brain lately.
iggyvandweller 