Getting There is Half the Fun

I am noticing a disturbing trend in our society, one that has, I suspect, unintended consequences in molding our perspectives. I’m speaking here of the current obsession with ‘results,’ the idea that if something doesn’t produce quantifiable results, it is somehow not worth the effort. These results need to be expressed with numbers, it seems, so that a graph or bar chart be constructed to compare results with somebody else’s results, which will then inevitably lead to conclusions about who ‘won’ and who ‘lost.’

In some instances, of course, results are needed. If you are producing widgets, and you need to produce 1,000 widgets an hour to make a profit, then your production process had better crank out at least 1,000+ widgets/hour or the business will eventually fail.

Life, however, is not a business, and those that attempt to recast the meaning of human existence into what are essentially economic terms are, I think, the true lost souls of our times. It is comforting, when faced with the myriad uncertainties of being alive, to try to find certain benchmarks, certain criteria, by which one can measure things. One has so much in the bank, or makes so much per month, or has a house with so many square feet. To some, these are the benchmarks of what is called ‘success,’ an illusive, poorly-defined term meant to convey an aura of credibility and status upon the person referred as such. In terms of results, what does that mean?

Upon examination, however, a human life is, in fact, not so easily quantifiable, and in our rush to attain ‘results’ we can measure and compare to others to determine the winners and losers (for what end, one may ask), we have lost sight of the value of the journey, the process of living, that teaches us the lessons that gives us patience, wisdom, tolerance, and character. Education isn’t worthwhile because it produces x-hundred thousand children a year who can all read at such-and-such a level, solve these kinds of math problems, and score that level on a standardized test. For some children, finding their own way around on the bus system is a mark of success. For some, it’s being able to simply stand without help. For others, it’s saying “No,” to peer pressure, addiction, and hopelessness, and yes, for others, it’s the PhD and the beemer. The process of education, the journey through learning, has become side-tracked into seeking measurable results – test scores – at the expense of the joy of knowledge, the seduction of deep inquiry, the pleasure, excitement and challenge that seeking the truth brings. Yes, remember truth, from the old books? The term that fired the souls of human beings since time began, and urged our adventurous ancestors out of their trees and caves and prodded them to migrate over the ridge, the mountains, or the seas to see if life was better over there? We are, by nature, curious beings who wish to know about this world we live in, and our willingness to seek, experiment, question, invent, and look beyond is one of our greatest strengths. It must therefore follow that our recent propensity towards narrowness of societal vision, subjugation of basic human values to material desire, and submersion of almost all that elevate our species into the venal is not a healthy, sustainable trend, and needs to be reversed before we forget that it is our higher nature that has brought us even this far.