Balancing the American Dream with leisure, reflection

In this final month of the semester, I have found that the chaos is already ensuing.  As we approach the time of exams and students struggle to pick up their slack in classes and decide their direction for the rest of 2010, life can seem fairly overwhelming. As for myself, I’ve had one of those weeks in which life continues to push you past your breaking point as you attempt to juggle everything happening around you.  I wish for nothing more in this moment but solitude and clarity, concepts that I regularly find myself struggling to come by in this absurdly fast-paced country we live in.  Often, consistently making time to slow down and center one’s self means sacrifice of something else that “needs” to be done.  This constant rush that we live in takes away from inherently basic human needs: leisure and reflection.

Throughout the many different chapters of my life thus far, people have told me a lot about themselves without using words.  In my eyes, trends have always seemed to develop regarding people’s actions as they move throughout day-to-day life.  One extremely obvious character trait of Americans, in particular, is that we keep ourselves busy to the point that we’re regularly overwhelmed.  From birth, we attempt to engrain in our children the idealistic American dream of hard work leading to opportunity and social advancement.  We encourage our offspring to throw themselves into the fast-spinning fray of our system and attempt to find happiness through what our society defines as success.  However, according to a survey done by the Conference Board research group at the beginning of this year, Americans are unhappier then ever; only 49 percent surveyed expressed deriving satisfaction from their jobs.  Where does this leave us?  How can one truly find happiness in a system that perpetuates dissatisfaction?

CNN published an article last week entitled “Embracing a Life of Solitude.”  The article focused on individuals who chose to live their lives physically disconnected from the rest of the world.  One man, Nick Fahey, has lived in isolation for the last 16 years on an island in the San Juan archipelago in Washington State.  His only constant connection to the modernized world is a cell phone charged by solar panels that he occasionally uses.  Another man, Edward Griffith-Jones, has spent the last year living in a hut he built in a Swedish national park.  He has lived entirely off the land and been forced to find his sustenance, at times, through things such as mice and rats.  “I have to collect firewood, rather than do some job that I have no idea what is the point, which I hate, and from which I am completely alienated,” said Jones. “Everything in my life feels full of meaning.”

Obviously it is completely implausible to make the claim that Americans should sell all of their belongings and move to a remote island in order to find meaning in their lives.  However, the lesson that we should take from these men is this: we will never be happy as individuals living within this system unless we learn to take the time to disconnect.  The American society we function within was not built around the idea of creating happiness for its citizens.  Rather, it does exactly the opposite for many people.  My message is this: no one will ever derive complete clarity and peace of mind out of the constant, fast-paced life we are expected to lead.  There comes a time when you have to deprogram and disconnect from this perpetuating 9-5, obligation-focused life and embrace the idea of solitude.  We all have to face ourselves at some point.  After all, in the words of Dr. Seuss, “You are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room."