Living the Dream
Posted: Saturday, July 10, 2010
by Randy Vaughan
It wasn't until I began the exciting, challenging, and rewarding occupation of spending all night driving all over hell and high-water to deliver doughnuts that I was introduced to this phrase: "Living the Dream". I'm certain it's usage it's not limited to those proud men and women known as "vendors" but, again, this was the first I knew of it.
So, for example, when someone asks me how I'm doing-and dependent on nothing more than my disposition at the time-I might say "If you're asking about life in general, I'm doing splendidly because after all, in the words of Mr. Armstrong, it is indeed a wonderful world'. But if you're asking me about my employment [and here the tone gets nasty, bitter, scathing, sarcastic as hell, and with a slight increase in volume], life sucks and I'm sick to damned death of being expected to feign interest in something which is sucking the life right out of me quicker than Bela Lugosi on amphetamines."
Needless to say that by this point I find myself either standing there alone or in the company of someone of like mind and attitudes, which means we have a good time complaining about things about which we can do nothing. But dammit it to hell, I find myself living in a very perplexing and inherently self-contradictory society. All I mean is that legally-speaking, silence is equated with agreement but, and at exactly the same time, everything you say can and will be used against you. So I'd rather have everyone dread seeing me walk though the door for fear of my endless tirades and rants rather than incorrectly believe (through the silence I refuse to practice) that I think working and living in this country is anything more than a damned annoyance and necessary evil.
On the other hand, my normal and predictable response is, as I said previously, a combination of a lie-the words themselves-couched comfortably in the truth, that is, the tone of my voice. So I usually just say, "If I was any better I'd be twins."
But among vendors the most predictable response you'll hear from what must be the genetic requirement to inquire of one's well-being is, "Living the dream." The words are saying one thing, the voice another.
So after a year of hearing this, and with all the time in the world to ponder it, here's what I have to say about "living the dream". First is the obvious: No one ever bothers to ask, or discuss, whose dream this is that I'm supposed to be living. It's a given, naturally, that it's the tired, worn-out, and pathetic lie of "the" American dream, an attempt to revert to the old days of "thirty years and a pension". Those were the "good ol' days" about which we still hear and talk so much, but those days are dead, buried, gone, and forgotten in the minds of all except people who have agendas or, perhaps, prefer clinging to fairy tales.
It's amazing to me is how so many people who find faith in "God" difficult while still believing that "hard work" and "character" and "honesty" and "integrity" still count for anything in today's work-world. But then again, such is the reason I used 85,000 words to put all those rants into book-form and I've no intention of repeating myself.
Now irony is indeed as ubiquitous as sunshine and, in this case, it's that those "good ol' days" also gave us lots of stupid things, things like women were to be barefoot and pregnant and black people were to sit at the back of the bus. Throwing babies out with the water is never a bad idea when you know you're dealing with a future brain-eating zombie, but tossing out a perfectly good "work ethic" along with those other things was just plain dumb. This proves why humans need never worry about brain-eating zombies taking over the world. Brains, I'm sad to say, are in very short supply and the poor zombies would simply starve to death, or re-death, or however one tries to talk about the dead dying again.
So it's for damned sure I'm not living "the" dream, "that" dream alluded to under "the American dream". And it's equally as true I'm not living any of my personal dreams. And yes, I've had a few such "dreams" over the course of my lifetime.
When I was a young lad, I dreamed of being a lawyer. I thought it had to be one of the most noble professions going, being there to help people in time of trouble. Well, by the time I was close to graduating from high school, the very thought of more formal education was as exciting as having vice-grips attached to my testicles, so there went one dream. And with the benefit of hindsight, I couldn't be more pleased that I never "grew up" and become a lawyer. Like the work ethic we reduced to nothing more than profits at the expense of people, we reduced the beauty of justice to the simplistic adherence to legal formality and, just for the hell of it, threw in "plea-bargains" so all parties involved could feel really good about themselves at the end of the day. Both sides walk away "winners". Ain't that special? The only losers, naturally, are the clients, the "accused," caught in the middle of these childish procedures.
And thanks to an old black-and-white television show titled "I was a spy for the FBI," I'd always wanted to be an FBI agent when I "grew up". Again, no more formal education nailed that one for me. Ah, but often a man can sneak in the back door, can he not? So at one point and after working for nearly a year as a Correctional Officer, I got to thinking that if I could get into "real" law enforcement that I just might still have a chance. So there I was, all set to become a State Trooper when, at the last moment, my now ex-wife decided she couldn't take the "stress" of me doing that kind of work.
Make that dream number two to vanish. And I could go on and on, but I won't.
Ah, but I've also have had "dreams" come to me that I never once "dreamed" on my own. For example, I dreamed of living happily ever after with my first girlfriend. Nope, didn't happen. Same thing for my now ex-wife. But as if "out of nowhere" entered Lisa into my life and I truly am indeed living happily ever after with the woman I love. So perhaps the danger lies not in the dream itself, but rather in becoming so focused and so determined in bringing about the "details" that you not only miss the opportunity, but completely negate the possibility, that "your" dream wasn't all that great to begin with.
The point of all this is painfully simple and obvious. All of us have dreams. But none of us live in a world free from the external influences of others. And if by some chance you do indeed get to make your own personal "dream" come to pass, that's great. But admit that along the way you were fortunate/lucky/blessed enough to benefit from the help and influence of others. At the same time, of course, all it takes is one other person to blow our dreams all to bloody hell, right?
But there's also this: "Dream" suggests being asleep. So if you're truly living your own "dream," I'm indeed very happy for you. But don't go getting all self-righteous and pompous and insist that those of us who are awake aren't entitled to point out all that's thoroughly whacked in the world. After all, you're "asleep," remember? So how in the hell would you know what's really going on?
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)LOL-LOL- I do love your cynical satire! Not to speak of your gratifying virtuosity with words- Thanks- Always- EllaHey, Ella...Thank you much (I been busy the last couple of weeks finally putting some time and effort into my own little book...Blogging and websites and all that stuff is more time consuming than I imagined.). "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," or so it says in Proverbs (I think, maybe Ecclesiasties). And so I look around and I really don't see a lot of people with "sick hearts" and so I have to conclude a couple of things. Either most people are having their hopes fulfilled, i.e., "living the dream," and my hopes have been dashed to pieces of a pile of rocks, or evidence of deferred hope can be anger and cynicism as well as tears and grief. From the point of view, it looks like most people do indeed suffer from "sick heart syndrome". Stay safe now.
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