Scale of Contentment
I’m watching an old documentary about Monty Python and listening to John Cleese talk about his father. John was destined for great things in his fathers view, most likely to work carefully and diligently and achieve the letters of a Chartered Accountant. “The world can be your oyster.”
There was a time in western nations when a solid job and prospects of a decent pension were regarded as a life of achievement. We aspired no higher, leaving the big dreams to royalty and the politicians.
Such modest goals of contentment may seem laughable to the internet generation of course. Why be satisfied with a career in accounting, after all it seems John Cleese had much greater things destined for him. The same should be for me too.
This is the fallacy of course. We see someone else who made it big, and assume that we too are destined for such success. Even if you are as talented as you want to think you are, are you as fortunate as John Cleese as well? He lived in a time in history when opportunities were made for his comedy, and he rode the wave. Took a lot of talent on his part, likely a good deal of work too, but he was the right man in the right place. The world is richer for it.
Many other qualified accountants failed to achieve the life of John Cleese however, despite an equal amount of effort, and sometimes even an equal amount of talent although not always. Our world today is very different to the one John’s father imagined, not merely because people we a little more humble in their self-assessments back then but equally they were respectful of the hierarchy into which they belonged.
In being satisfied to achieve the letters of a chartered accountant one is not just showing their humility, but they were showing due respect for those who exist a little further up the ladder. It shows respect for people who have earned skills and experience in other careers. This respect extends to journalists, scientists, law officers, nurses, artisans, teachers, farmers and all manner of endeavours.
Today we are taught to strive for the stars, and in the process we forget to respect those who sit beside us in life’s journey.
I happen to respect my accountant a great deal, because he’s a genuine family man who takes care of his elders as much as his children. He gives a lot of his life to his immediate and extended family, and used his accounting practice as a way of paying the bills. He’s actually far smarter and far more community focused than just about anyone else I know. He doesn’t have a “social media profile” however, so you’ve never heard of him.
If I were to have born a son, then I would be able to look at my accountant and recognise that I’d be damned lucky if my son ended up in such a career and earned such a well balanced outlook on life. If he ended up as an Eddy McGuire, Tony Abbott or Donald Trump then I’d be disgusted of course. It’s a moot scenario that will never come to pass however.
I wonder if we, as a society, realise just how much we have lost since the days of John Cleese’s father? We think our judgement is so remarkable that we can ignore science as though it were merely opinion; ignore the evidence of climate change and ignore the benefits of vaccines. We make ourselves dumber by the click, chasing our egos down the rabbit hole that is The Internet, in search of anything to reaffirm our existing bias.
We live is a world full of labels; black, refugee, islamic, left-wing, socialist. It’s never been easier to assign a stranger to the “out group”, so much so we need not even meet them.
It’s fine to strive to be your best. In fact it’s essential. Striving to be “THE” best however is arrogant and socially destructive. When you’re 23 years old and have already decided that you cannot be happy unless you are the best at [insert meaningless socially visible goal here] then you’ve already sold yourself out. You’re already a hollow husk with an emptiness inside that no amount of LIKES will ever satiate.
I know there is more to life than just working towards a better accountancy degree. But for most of us the rewards of “success” will only come after decades of hard work, and they will only be made possible because a great many other people have already done hard work before we did. Sir Isaac Newton is credited with the quotation, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Nothing sums up my good fortune in life better than this quote. I had the benefit of some great teachers through primary and high school. I lived in a city where I could find work to get me through a graduate degree. I had great friends who helped keep me sane when my family was not. I benefitted from national health care when my teeth rotted away, when I suffered from viral encephalitis, and when I was struck with palsy. I have made a career from digital photography only because a series of remarkable scientists developed technology that captures images and shunts them onto my hard drives.
As I type this article I am using a superb laptop computer that conceals my inability to spell and compensates for my dyslexia. If not for the giants who built the society in which I live, I would literally be foraging for wild potatoes and running from wild animals.
So please be your best. But please recognise the best that surrounds you and appreciate that so many other people are doing their best too. Sometimes that leads to brilliant outcomes. It is possible you will achieve brilliance in your life, but only through hard work and only by standing on the shoulders of giants who have paved the way thus far.
