Years ago I was introduced to blogging at the beach. I found this to be incredibly uplifting and reflective of what I continue to perceive as ‘the good life’. I am closer to living a daily lifestyle of that sort. This morning I am blogging from the edge of my pool. My feet are in the water as the sun is rising. I am happy and fairly healthy and relaxed. This is the life I intended.
The very concept of personal happiness has always been at the heart of my goal structure. Last night I was reminded that this is a cultural phenomenon of democracy. I learned this too years and years ago as a young sociology student, but watching a documentary called American Factory I was reminded that other cultures are sometimes about the growth and promotion of their culture and country more than they are about personal growth and happiness. Their own happiness is oft a luxury, with half a day spent working basic labor jobs to drive the engine of corporations which drive the engine of the societies bank roll.
When attempting to bring that culture here to America, they discovered that we are quite lazy and self centered by their standards. That italicized part is the part that matters. What we define as a hard work lifestyle here is just the basics for them. Two days off a week is crazy talk for a lot of places in the world. It reminded me that we work less than many parts of the world and we have so much more. In fact we have enough that I can be writing this blog by poolside in spite of being born in the middle of Harlem New York four decades ago. That kind of upward mobility is specifically American and gives me a warm feeling about what it means to be an American.
What I also hold in hand with that feeling is a responsibility as an American to keep the doors of opportunity open to anyone who wants to have the same chances that I had growing up. That is principle to being an American in my opinion, but it is clear for so many others–so many vocal others at least–that this opportunity should not belong to everyone but belong to those who were ‘here first’ or ‘here the right way’. In other words, there is not enough to go around and many would prefer it if everything in America was reflective of how things looked and felt 20+ years ago.
That to me is the crux of the growing culture wars.