so you'll remember what I forgot to say
Since September 11, 2001, the citizenry of the United States feel transformed, and perhaps it is true around the world as well. I do not know; I live here. I competed in debate in college. I was aware of the dangers that terrorism posed for our Republic and the free world, not just the West. I do not think the world has been transformed; the veil was lifted for many people that day. I was shocked and horrified that day as many of you were but I knew that some day, it would happen. Our republic is too large and too free to be guarded perfectly, and more importantly, it is too coveted.
I am not writing about September 11, 2001, but more the reaction and self-evaluation that has ensued. Many people, in their secreted fear, in their lingering terror are questioning the American Dream, and what it means to be American. Of course this went on before September 11, 2001, but it seems to have grown in popularity since that day, online journaling has made it that much more simple.
I went through this journey myself and I am at the end of it. I have realized the American Dream. I did not achieve this feat through European coloration, possessing external reproductive organs, practicing a Protestant faith, or having wealthy genetic donors.
First, a dream is not real. It is a phantom you chase in your unconscious identity. The American Dream is not real a dream, but an ideology. It is the American Ideology that separates �the quick and the dead� in our society. It is the Ideology of Optimism.
The American Dream is not having things that you can touch, owning the biggest home, the fanciest German car, chatting it up on the most sophisticated cellular phone, playing on the fastest computer, and working at a prestigious job where you have notoriety, respect, and power. Leftist America, John Kerry�s America wants you to think that those things are the American Dream and that it something you can never achieve. That is not the American Dream.
The American Dream is optimistic, uniquely Western in nature and born of a heretical idea popular in Protestantism that hard work can achieve all things. Works Righteousness is a framework where your labors make you righteous, that is self explanatory and impossible when approaching God. It is however something that in the corporeal realm can exist.
The American Ideology, the Ideology of Optimism, of Hope is one where your attitude and labor brings you to a place where you are happy with your life. America is about three things: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Benjamin Franklin changed the French philosopher�s (I forget which) idea that it was life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.
You know you have reached the American �Dream� when you wake up content with your life. I am content in my life and that is why I am living the dream. I have optimism that my community, the Republic, and the world can be better and through hard work will be.
I have woken up to this dream; I am living it because I am happy with where my life is and what my life is. I am happy in my job, in my family, in my relationships and even my material possessions. The material possessions are not important, but I am happy with what I have because through process of elimination I have discovered that it is not what makes me happy.
Figuring out what makes you happy and then working towards achieving happiness through those things is the American Ideology. What makes me happy? My relationships with my friends and family, vocation, literature, and faith create happiness in my world.
I have structured my world into a series of healthy relationships through Yvonne�s example and (cousin) Daniel�s familial construct. Yvonne gives us a great example of the hard work of expelling the friends who are not really friends. Daniel reconstructed my idea of family. Family and relatives are two different groups. Family is relatives you care about and have a relationship with; this is reciprocal. Anyone who does not care about you and does not have a relationship with you is just a relative. The link is only genetic. Considering the ugliness of the past year: I have to recognize that I would be a miserable person without being family with Daniel and having his insight. Yvonne is also a wonderful rock to lean on, and hide behind.
Vocation makes me happy; this comes from being German. I like to work. Being busy makes me happy. I also get more happiness from doing jobs that help people. This is why I work as a teacher. I get to help people. This brings me esoteric rewards. Those awful warm fuzzy feelings.
Literature, the creation, and experiencing of literature make me happy. I love to write and read. I love weaving stories together, pounding out an expository essay, a political rant, or even just composing an email. I am also a big fan of the synonym. I enjoy a good story too. I love reading books, my apartment is full of them, so is my �garage,� classroom, and office. If you are selling magazine subscriptions, I am the person to hit up. I read a ton of web journals and newspapers daily. I would be able to withstand being deaf, being blind is a cruelty that I would not endure.
Finally, faith makes me happy. Religion seems to structured, established. If I said, �spiritual� I would feel the like hippies I hit with my cart at the grocery. Believing in and having a relationship with God makes me happy. Knowing that God is there, that God cares, and is driving the bus gives me great comfort. Joanna, I avoided a gender pronoun just for you.
I know what makes me happy; I pursue it. Angry Leftists will tell you that it is something that only wealthy people can have. They are wrong, they are usually wrong. In their heart, they know they are wrong, too. They do not know what makes them happy, they are incapable of being happy, or what makes them happy is unattainable for them.
Most of the examples of people who have lived this dream are wealthy. I have to grant that but at the same time, we do not notice people who are not famous or wealthy as a community. We notice the rich and famous, we do not notice the poor and discrete.
Benjamin Franklin is the best example of this. He started life out poor, working class and through education, and hard work he became a wealthy, influential, and most importantly � a happy person. He is the model on which Americans are made and judged. He is the best we have to offer and that for which we strive. His wealth and influence are really just byproducts of his happiness and emotional success.
Benjamin Franklin was once accosted in a bar following the Revolution by someone who said, �You promised us happiness!� He said, �I did no such thing, I gave the opportunity to pursue happiness.�
Get out there and pursue it
(and don�t believe the angry leftists)
�Click my cleavage for Creepatron!�
