eThoughts : Some Promise, Little Substance

Somehow it seems like most of us get sidetracked into achieving or accomplishing something. We are supposed to be good at something. Such accomplishments are noteworthy merit badges—elevating our status in the tribe. After all, if you want a something done, who better to go to than the best in that something? That’s a contribution to the well-being of the community. One is now a contributing member of society, not just a taker.

But wait, I said it seems like we get sidetracked into this achievement that leads to contribution. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting down the somethings we accomplish, I’m wondering about why we emphasize the things more than what the accomplishment might stand for.

What’s an accomplishment stand for you might well ask? All right, I’ll answer my imaginary audience’s imaginary query. It seems to me that to do something well, one must have learned some modicum of detachment from an objective. Learning a thing is a result of chaining together moments of being timeless and free of expectations. Want to learn about a particular discipline? Then have the discipline to let go of outcomes or those outcomes will interfere with learning the discipline.

And what does the tribe emphasize? Not the letting go of expectations, but the achievements themselves. It is like society is arguing that it is the achievement that matters. So what do we get? We get exactly the opposite of what matters—the expectation and importance of getting things (from degrees, to medals, to honors, to homes, cars, corner offices—you get the idea), rather than the knowledge and importance of how to learn. We seem to think that achievement means learning, rather than learning means achievement. I’m thinking that these are not interchangeable concepts. Think lying, plagiarism, cheating, pillaging, plundering, cronyism, nepotism, etc., etc., etc. C’mon, good grief, just because someone has an achievement, doesn’t mean they’ve learned what’s important—we all know that. But it doesn’t seem to stop the comparisons or the expectations.

So many of us wake up in the mornings to what seems like so little substance in our life and wonder what happened to all that promise. The television show American Idol is a good example—so many deluded people so out of touch with their abilities. Their ear is not tuned to music, it is tuned to achievement.

Maybe it would help if we think of the promise as a river and the substance of achievement as a stone. Stones can dot the river and certainly they have influence, but the river keeps on moving and it is the river that deposits the stones and not the stones that deposit the river. Both are important, but it might just pay to remember on those dreary mornings when we think we see the broken promise of our life in the midst of such little substance, that the promise is never broken, it is only fogged over by our emphasis on the stones of achievement.