The American Dream
The American Dream by Shea Fite, The Narrows, September 25th, 2010
What does it mean to be an American? It is a question that should haunt us. We live in a land that values pluralism to the point of losing our identity. I have been thinking a lot about our national identity lately. This weekend, I cleaned up the yard and I cleaned out the garage. You got it. I spent a whole lot of time and energy shuffling things around the garage. You know those things that you bought at Wal-Mart or Home Depot. It seemed like a perfectly good idea at the time. In the back of my head I told myself that if I buy this thing my life will be easier and I will be happier for it. The justification is subtle. If only I were more organized, then I could spend more time with my family, or perhaps I would be more productive. Whatever, now I just move the stuff from one side of the garage to the other thinking “I can’t throw this away I might need it one day.” Well, this weekend I had enough. I backed up my truck to the garage and began chunking useless things into the back. I couldn’t help but think about how wasteful I was being. It was liberating to throw away that broken sub-woofer and the rusty old bike.
So this brings me to a core founding quote from Thomas Jefferson. It used to be ingrained into every American citizen school age and older.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Ah, the pursuit of Happiness! That’s where this American dream comes from. Somewhere post World War II this idea of “the pursuit of happiness” morphed into something entirely different than what Thomas Jefferson meant. Do you think Jefferson envisioned an America that gorges itself on video games that glorify death and violence, rampant sexual behavior promoted and piped into every home via television and the internet or on demand divorce as a road map to “the pursuit of happiness?”Do you think he envisioned a materialistic America where money and business achievement was the end road to happiness? I think we must go back to what Thomas Jefferson meant when we wrote these words if we are to understand what our national identity is.
Our older generation grieves what our culture has become. I don’t believe they ever envisioned big box stores, fast food or 65 inch flat panel TV’s. I don’t think they dreamed of an America crammed full of noise, talking heads, text messaging, Iphones and Facebook. These things are undeniably good but when taken in a great big dose, I think we can all agree something has gone quite nutty. They certainly envisioned families, thanksgiving dinners and growing old with the one they loved.
On the way to dump my junk out of the back of my truck I was thinking of the young men who stormed the beaches of Normandy. Their buddies were slaughtered to the left and to the right. I kept thinking about these dirty faced soldiers crawling out of the surf, with determination in their eyes and grit in their hearts. These guys knew what they were fighting for. They had a dream of what America was and what it could be. America was a fond memory because of the people in it. And they made it back home with their faculties attached simply because they loved what they would be coming home to and what they were fighting for.
That generation seemed to miss the disillusionment common after Vietnam. The entire country had entered the World War with them, it seems. Unlike the wars we experience today, where the general public is far removed from what our men are fighting for in Afghanistan and Iraq. We choose to watch sitcoms instead of contemplate the fact that sons of America are dying for our freedom and “the pursuit of happiness.” I think we make these choices because we can’t reconcile what they are fighting for or why they are fighting. I think this disillusionment reveals our unhappiness with our homeland. We no longer have vision for what is really important. I think it is because we are wounded. We aren’t attached to our families. We don’t believe our marriages can last. We think our fathers might abandon us. We have seen our mothers chase their own selfish desires.
That’s why the greatest generation doesn’t understand the new upcoming twenty something’s. They are on two completely different planes. The twenty somethings have not internalized the need for sacrifice and suffering. And why would they? Their parents have spent their whole lives trying to protect them from psychological and physical pain while telling themselves that it is ok to divorce. That it won’t hurt the kids if they are young enough. In fact the twenty something has been given the American dream. They have far more things than the greatest generation could have imagined at the time that could be given to their children. The average American citizens tax return can buy a flat screen tv and this is true whether you actually earn income or not (in 2009 if you got a refund it came in around $2600). The twenty somethings have the two car garage, and the food on their plate and the freedom to pursue happiness but they are not happy.
I think that it is time to re-evaluate the American Dream. And I think we all can agree that simply to chase things and to maintenance stuff is exhausting. I gained no energy from going outside and mowing and weed eating. When I bought my house, it was supposed to make me happy. I was supposed to be more comfortable. Yet, over time the stuff I buy breaks. Dust builds up on it and I have to dust it off again and again. You see the stuff isn’t worth fighting for. There is not one item in my garage that I would storm the beaches of Normandy for. We all know it but we are lured into spending the lion share of our time being productive in order to have these garages full of worthless things.
Life is teaching me that if these things don’t draw me closer to God and to others, well, they are worthless! I think this comes from a glimpse of eternity in my heart. Relationships with God and others is the one item that transfers from this life to the afterlife. Let that sink in a little. Relationship with other human beings is the one thing that transfers. Look it up in the Bible and tell me if there is anything else that you can take with you. Everything else is just a bunch of rubbish. Something that gathers dust and that will eventually be destroyed. If it makes a really long run, it may end up in a museum.
Philippians 3:8 (The Message)
Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.
Is it possible that the greatest generation was lied to? When they got back from World War II and hacked out a productive living by saving and earning, then transferring an inheritance of hard work and productivity to the baby boomers that somehow the emphasis on relationships was lost. Those soldiers making it home with memories of dead comrades and a hunger for baseball, apple pie and their loved ones waiting, did they forget to emphasize the loved ones part? I don’t think so. I think they pursued happiness and delivered. I think the baby boomers picked up the baton but somehow didn’t value as much what their parents fought so hard to achieve. I think the baby boomers then worked hard and delivered things to their children. And the things were empty. They couldn’t buy happiness.
If we, the new generation of leaders are going to help define what it means to be an American, we have to take the emphasis squarely off providing stuff and place it on our closest relationships. And this all starts with the most important relationship: the one that carries us into eternity. And how do we do this? We need to repent. We have believed a huge lie about what makes us happy. We need to get real with ourselves and get on our knees and ask God’s forgiveness. He gives it freely. Then we need to repent to those we have hurt and wounded by our own selfishness. And we need to work hard to stay married and to continue to be loving parents to our own children. The emphasis on relationship makes all the difference.
The twenty somethings don’t buy it. They don’t want success at the expense of broken relationships. They have already experienced it and it left them bored, hurt and angry. No, they need us to show them how relationships are done. And we need a new American Dream. One the elevates family and relationship with Jesus over our own selfish desires. We need an American Dream that is God's dream.