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August 2006 - Article 1
So, how important is it to get ahead? It's something that is encouraged, and lauded if someone actually gets there. Yet "getting ahead" has its downside too, with all the attendant petty jealousies and fears that go along with it. Hard work, that's important. But there can be a dark side to success, and not to difficult to find the shadows that lurk beyond the effort to achieve it.
Ambition is pretty much considered a good thing, especially in Western society. The more time that one spends at work, the more virtuous one seems. Even with the holistic approaches that encourage one to slow down, it's still tempting to see someone as dedicated and principled if they put hours away at a working pursuit. Particularly if it seems to benefit society, such as at a nonprofit group or hard toil like farming. But it's still a good idea to sacrifice at least some of your personal life for the office, regardless of type, if you want to show the boss you're more deserving of the raise than the next person. But this is one of those things that can seem innocent enough, until you realize you're going over the edge, which many times is way past an acceptable limit of tolerance. Working is like eating in that respect. It's necessary, and in many ways, enjoyable a pursuit. Using the food analogy, maybe someone eats so fast that they don't realize that he's overindulged until he gets indigestion. Maybe someone doesn't realize that she's overworking until she realizes she doesn't know her own children, and meanwhile, she did it all for them. The fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes warns of the danger of too much ambition, and of overwork. It warns of many instances of abuse of power, and how this attribute corrupts and isolates. In this chapter, the arc presents oppression of a weaker person (Eccl 4:1), introduces an instance where success invites envy (Eccl 4:4), and shows the misery of those who choose work over the bonds of friendship (Eccl 4:8-12). It shows the transparency of unearned power, and how tenuous power's bonds are in winning over the heart of man (Eccl 4: 13-16). The message that comes through is timeless, even in a time and place where kings do not determine the law of the land. Work, and the power that money creates, is only good up to a point, perhaps only for personal survival and that of others. But how easy is it to turn a blind eye for companionship in the light of getting ahead, making a name for oneself, or securing a place in the trenches of the business world, however that may be defined? And how subtly overwork can be introduced into the human psyche, causing consternation in the end for a person. There is a maxim which cites what seems like would be a truism, that on a deathbed, one doesn't wish that they had been at more board meetings. This may seem obvious, as it would make sense that in the last moments of life, a person would have more supernatural contemplations, and work doesn't seem to quite fit into this scheme. And yet, through middle age, the standard mindset seems to belie this simple wisdom. In high school, one has to put studying for college exams over friendship. At the very least, the person with the most learning differences is encouraged to pass high school. This makes sense, but what if it has to come at the expense of cultivating friendships? A question like this may seem like a petulant whine, a complaint of adolescent angst. But the socialization that comes from this process can lead to a lifetime of putting work before friendship and real social connection. Eventually, it can lead people to an acute sense of spiritual digestion with no sense that they have overindulged in a good thing. To the writer of Ecclesiastes, wisdom in all matters would let someone avert themselves from disaster in this area. Work, power and ambition mean nothing if the effort leads to a vacuous soul, an empty heart, and a callousness of one's neighbors. In the writer's interpretation, it is better to be poor and wise than to have all the money in the world and with it a closed heart. It is wiser to cultivate riches of social wisdom, in the long run, than to close one's eyes upon a roomful of treasures that disappear from the soul upon the moment of death. |