Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Penis

Not quite the opener the Founding Fathers had in mind, I’m sure.

Thanks to all your great comments on the last few articles I’ve been musing about some wider issues.

Rikard really set the noggin joggin with his mention of the “hero’s journey” - and many other comments really jibed and ‘intersected’ with that.

[Rikard - I know I’ve said this before, but you should really write your thoughts down in a blog, or stack - you have a far more penetrating mind than mine]

The play on words around the opening statements of the Declaration of Independence is meant to highlight the issue I have in mind. What is “the pursuit of happiness”? And whilst I certainly don’t want any government to tell me what I need to do to be happy, I’m not 100% sure I can answer that question for myself, either.

Is being able to buy expensive brandy, order the latest gadgets, and have 5 different sexual partners a week going to make me “happy”? I’m sure there would be some temporary enjoyment of such a lifestyle, but is finding enjoyment the same thing as being happy?

Everyone is different, and the things that make one person happy might be the very antithesis of happiness for another. I’m not overly convinced that human beings, in general, are all that good at understanding what makes them happy. But it’s also true that it’s not anyone else’s job to tell us what ought to make us happy.

But is focusing on our own happiness the best strategy?

I’m not really a big fan of organised religions, but lots of people have remarked how, with the decline of the influence of religion, we seem to be flailing around a bit and searching for a purpose, some meaning, to our existence. We seem to be casting around in search of some ‘identity’.

I managed to get through 5 decades of existence without ever once thinking about my “identity” - at least as far as I can recall.

I have certainly wished to be ‘different’. I’d like to have been taller, more handsome, less prone to beer and burger spread, a better singer, and possessed of a bit more brain juice.

Perhaps I have stable identity privilege.

There are also times when I wish I could have been more compassionate, more understanding, less selfish, emotionally stronger, more motivated, less lazy, and so on. I suppose all of these kinds of things go into making up my “identity” - although I’d be more inclined to say they make up my character.

These days there does seem to be rather a lot of “look at me” around. I’ve been guilty of that kind of thing on occasion too. It’s always existed and maybe we’re just seeing it more exposed now because of things like social media.

The Catholic religion I grew up in was both inward and outward looking. Inwardly we reflected on our flaws, sought penance and absolution, and tried to be a better person. Outwardly we reflected on God and gave praise and thanks.

Some of the congregation had gifts, they were ‘special’, but walk on water they could not! When your external reference point is Jesus, you kind of have to recognise you’re going to come up a tad short of the mark.

You didn’t have a “hero’s journey”, you followed the hero on His journey.

I don’t ever recall a sermon in which we were encouraged to pursue our own happiness. Plenty of sermons exhorting us to be mindful of the well-being of others though.

In my younger days I spent a lot of time trying to get my head round various religions. I read the Bible and the Quran along with Jewish and Buddhist writings. I looked at the histories and the language. Built into most of the stuff I was reading was a kind of abnegation of self.

I was never very good with the language side of things, but I think I’m right in saying that the Semitic languages are constructed round a ‘root’ structure. In Arabic the root S-L-M occurs in words like Muslim or Islam. A translation of the word Muslim would be one who ‘submits’ to God which evokes a kind of master/slave relationship. The root S-L-M, however, means to be made whole, complete, safe. So, the root of the word provides us with a deeper reading of the word Muslim which is one who submits to God in order to be made whole - a different emphasis than a crude master/slave relationship.

If you read some sayings of Jesus without an appreciation of language you can get very confused. Apparently, if you blaspheme against the Holy Ghost you can never be forgiven. This statement caused me no end of trouble in my younger days. Rape? Murder? Fine, fine - just say a few Hail Mary’s and you’ll be OK. Say hurty words against the Holy Ghost? Off to Hell you go!

You could be forgiven for thinking of God as some kind of narcissistic psychopath if you took a surface ‘reading’ of Jesus’ statement here. But if you look at the Aramaic, a different picture emerges. The word for blaspheme literally means to turn away. The words for Holy Ghost can also be translated as the life-giving power of God, and the word for forgiven means to be made whole.

So, another way of interpreting Jesus’ statement through the lens of the actual language he spoke, would be that if you turn yourself away from the life-giving power of God, you can never be made whole. Not quite the “burn the hurty-word-speaker in Hell for all Eternity” of the original now, is it?

It’s nice to know that even God isn’t some woke narcissist.

The pursuit of happiness should not be confused with a pursuit of pleasure, or a pursuit of self-indulgence, or a pursuit of specialness.

To pursue happiness, one must first understand what happiness means for you.

Traditional religions teach anything but a pursuit of specialness. They teach humility.

Traditional religions teach anything but a pursuit of self-indulgence. They teach restraint.

Traditional religions teach anything but a pursuit of pleasure. They teach us that the highest pleasure is in serving God and serving others.

Are they right? Is life all about others, or is mankind’s highest pinnacle to be found in living in the Capitol of The Hunger Games?

---