Contentment and Ambition

“The Laracys lack ambition,” observed an in-law about the family into which he had married. It didn’t come across as a compliment. But he was onto something.

Our Aunt Grace (of happy memory) frequently commented that the happiness of our parents’ marriage came from the financial contentment of our mother: she was happy with their level of material comfort and never exerted pressure on the breadwinner for upward mobility. Mom herself confirmed this: aware of her own father’s breakdown during the Great Depression, she had no intention of putting stress on her conscientious, hard-working husband. Aunt Grace was on to something.

The virtue of contentment is largely forgotten and ignored in our society; and it desperately needs to be retrieved, especially in this time of economic distress and downward mobility. This virtue is not the contradiction of all ambition; but it does indicate restfulness, an inner serenity, a cessation of restlessness, agitation, and hyperactivity. It indicates a peace and happiness with what is given. It entails a profound sense of gratitude. It connotes fullness, abundance, a sense of surplus. It is the virtue of the Sabbath, of rest, of praise, of simplicity, and of Hope among hopes and in even in hopelessness.

My students are dumbfounded when they hear this: they assume that they will live better than their parents and their children will live better than themselves. The more insightful among them quickly realize that such an upward trajectory is not sustainable indefinitely. The addiction to upward mobility and an expansive economy carry within themselves their own destruction. This has something to do with the bust we are currently experiencing.

It is not likely that the unprecedented prosperity we have enjoyed in America over the last half of a century will continue indefinitely. We may now be entering a prolonged period of deflation, underemployment, scarcity and downward mobility. This will not be a bad thing if we encourage each other in the practices of contentment, gratitude and simplicity.

And what can we say of genuine, healthy, even holy ambitions? These include: The longing to grow closer to God and become a saint; the desire for happy, holy families; the ambition to do God’s work by announcing the Good News to the poor; and the passion for wisdom and virtue.

May the imminent recession/depression become for us a Visitation from our Lord in which we grow in holy contentment and Godly ambitions!