For some folks, success means big houses, fast cars and cool clothes. Not me. Why? I’m happy with my 1,500-square-feet home, 2007 brick-red Jeep, and the comfy T-shirts I wear atop my old swim-trunks.
I mention this because, as a young man, I wanted to be rich and famous — like Elvis, The Beatles, and Brando. Didn’t happen. The reason: Couldn’t sing like Presley, write like Lennon-McCartney, or act like Marlon.
For years, fame and fortune poked me in the eye, mocking my mediocrity. Those jabs sent my inner-man into a dark spiral that seeped into my emotional basement where it sloshed around in the stew of my discontent.
Yuck!
Then something changed; a lot of somethings:
· In September 1969, Lennon privately told his fellow Beatles he was leaving the group. McCartney announced his departure the following April.
· Presley died Aug. 16, 1977, at 42, his drug-addled body found sprawled on his bathroom floor.
· Brando hung around until 2004, puffing up to 300-plus pounds. He died at aged 80, after suffering numerous ailments, including Type 2 diabetes.
More recently, two other deaths jarred loose the last few tentacles fame and fortune had squirreled into my brain: In February 2014, Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, apparently of an accidental overdose. Later that year, funny-man Robin Williams committed suicide at his California home. Hoffman was 46; Williams, 63.
How do things like that happen?
In 1965, the year before I flunked out of college, a folk-rock group called The Byrds had a hit song called “Turn, Turn, Turn.” (I’m listening to it now.)
According to Wikipedia, “The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible,” adding that, “In the US, the song holds distinction as the number one hit with the oldest lyrics.”
The Bible is an important book in our family. When my wife and I married in 1975, Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 was read out loud during the ceremony, the key thought being this: “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” (New Living Translation)
So my wife and I sit in our little house, happy to be alive, happy to be with each other, and happy that (when we need him, which is often) there’s a third person looming in the background ready to help when the storms of life grow strong. (Thank God for that.)
SUNDAY MEDITATIONS ARCHIVE: Click here.
