I was having a conversation the other day and despite the best intentions of both myself and the other conversant the topic of Britney Spears came up. Now this was when the media was saturated with the news of her custody loss, and we were both saying how really sad it was. Not an unfortunate decision, far from it, but sad that her behaviors had gotten to the point where she lost her children.
This got me to thinking a bit of the behaviors of some of her peers as well as those of other rather famous stars and otherwise fabulously wealthy people. This is not to say that everyone of remarkable wealth behaves so poorly, but I think they make an interesting case.
You see, these people are able to live their lives almost entirely for their own pleasure. Virtually anything they want, they can get. Anything they want to do is possible, and yet, what happens? Usually, some form of self-destruction that can easily lead to an early, tragic death.
I think there are a few lessons from this. First, I often catch myself thinking that it would be great to just have a little bit more money to alleviate some of the stress I feel about finances (and just to brag a bit, I'm pretty darn good with money), so this is a good reminder that more money can, as the rap song tells us, equal mo' problems.
Second, and I think this is even more important, it seems as though we were aren't designed to live a life of pleasure. Pardon my coming repetition. We are not designed to live a life of pleasure. That is not to say that pleasure of various forms isn't a wonderful part of life, but we can't survive if it is the basis. If we live for ourselves, we destroy ourselves. It doesn't get much simpler than that.
I think there are a few reasons for this. On the most basic level, pleasure is meaningless without pain. Think about that for a second. Anything, if sustained for long enough becomes the status quo. Thus, pleasure in any form become like a drug to which we build up an immunity, causing us to seek ever higher forms of pleasure which cannot be sustained indefinitely leading to an inevitable crash.
On the other hand, I believe that we are hardwired to live for others. Ask anyone what it feels like to donate time, money or talents. It may be difficult, but almost without fail this makes people feel good on some level. Why? I think one could come up with a variety of answers, but it does seem a bit odd, doesn't it? It doesn't make sense in our society, which rewards and praises individual achievements. A sacrifice necessarily means that there is a net loss for the individual that is giving, so it doesn't make sense that this could make someone feel good.
And yet, it does.
Thus, despite what our consumer-based (and rather too successful) economy would like to tell us, we need to be worried more about what we could be doing for others than what more we can do/get for ourselves. In the long run, I think this is probably the best thing anyone could do for themselves, not to mention those that will be helped in the meantime.
