Contentment is unnatural for humans. We always want more, as in more money, more clothing, more house – or we want less, as in less fighting, less war, less cheating.
We covet what others have. We covet what is shown on television commercials. We murmur and complain because we don’t have what we want. Political parties are not content, because they never have unquestioned power. Employers are never content, because employees are imperfect. Employees are never content because they lack full control. Teachers, parents, teenagers, children, police officers, and military – it simply is unnatural for humans to be content.
Contentment is unnatural when it comes to the human body. How many of us really accept the body we were given, totally content with it? Very few, judging from the diet products and plans. Very few, judging from the myriad of hair dye colors on store shelves.
A lack of contentment drives the costly cosmetic surgery business. Discontent motivates protestors to surge through streets, creating havoc and endangering lives. Discontent often leads to frequent changes in job and address. Contentment is unnatural for humans.
But contentment is a trait of character!
Contentment is a necessary character trait if we truly intend to be men and women of character. The difficulty is that contentment will not grow by itself. We have to plant seeds of contentment, water them, nourish them, and help them grow. We have to rip out every weed of discontent that would threaten to choke our young plants. Contentment must be carefully cultivated.
Contentment must be protected from the birds of discontent. We are bombarded daily by advertising that has, as its one goal, the destruction of contentment. We are promised contentment – but only if we buy one more thing – and then one more – and then one more, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
A young woman who died recently in America epitomized discontentment. Born in Houston, a Texas town that hadn’t yet experienced its coming boom, Vickie was not content to be Vickie. When her mother remarried, Vickie took her new father’s last name, and changed her first name to Nikki. Nikki was not content with going to school, and stopped with an eighth grade education. She was not content with the 16 year old Billy Smith she married at age 17, and soon left him. Tiring of her old life, Nikki Smith gradually moved downward from a position as Wal-Mart employee to stripper to Playboy model. Along the way, Nikki Smith grew discontented with her name again, and changed it to Anna Nicole Smith. The story of discontent goes on. Anna was not content with her hair color, her body shape, her face, or much of anything else. Anna Nicole Smith went into eternity this month having never learned to be content.
Contentment is no more natural to you and me than it was to Anna. What is natural to us is discontent. Covetousness and complaining are as natural as breathing! We don’t have to build those. We don’t have to teach children in our schools to be discontent. We need not teach students to complain; they complain fast enough without any education! As a principal and teacher, I can assure you of that.
Contentment is unnatural in humans, and only Character Builders will ever try to achieve it. They will work at it consistently and conscientiously – and when they think they have achieved contentment, only to fall back into complaining, they will begin again. Contentment is a trait of character.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?