A student asked me today, following a reflective assignment, whether it is possible for a person to be successful as if by accident, without choosing to do the right thing with a knowledge that it was the right thing or without a sense of purpose in the choice, but rather as a sort of random choice. In other words, could it be that a person could be successful without knowing his purpose? Here is my reply:
Darren, you are describing a situation like the story I mentioned in class called “It’s a Wonderful Life” (the Christmas story with the old man angel). In this story, the man (George Bailey) made the choice to be successful (to be loyal to his town and raise a family), even though he did not KNOW that this choice made him successful (he was still wishing to travel and felt “trapped” by his town and his family).
So, you are saying, “Wasn’t he successful before he knew his purpose?”
In some way, yes, I believe he was.
But I believe the story teaches a deeper lesson: Although George chose the right thing, he did not LOVE it: He did not see it and accept it as his real purpose. (Because, to love something is to make it your purpose, your dream.) And that refusal to love the good things he chose made him deeply unhappy. Where did that unhappiness lead him? To a bridge on Christmas eve, ready to jump off. Can we say that anyone who kills himself was truly successful?
So I guess that someone can begin to be successful even before they realize it. But if they refuse to want it, to accept it as their purpose…if they refuse to LOVE it…that success will become failure. I think there are times in each person’s life when they have to choose whether to love like that or not, and I think those moments define the person.
[And, a note to self: it is these moments that crop up time and again in Flannery O’Connor stories, and in Dostoevsky, and perhaps in every good story…]
Ben Taylor 