It occurred to me today that contentment is a dying practice.

I have a music mix in my digital music collection called the Mega Mix. I wrote about it once, in THIS POST. This particular mix is a playlist that I’ve been refining for the better part of a decade. It has 685 songs in it, and it will play for 47 hours without repeating a song. It has some of my favorite hits from my whole life of appreciating music.

The other day, when I was playing the Mega Mix on the way home from work, Waterfalls, by TLC, came on. It has always been a great song, IMO. It’s probably the song that people are most likely to associate with the band, if they don’t mention No Scrubs.

Of course, one of my favorite parts of that song is probably one of the favorite parts of everyone who appreciates this song; it’s the rap that happens as a sort of bridge, between the second chorus and the end of the song. This rap is performed by TLC band member, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and its lyrics are very socially conscious and chilling. The rap itself is also a great testimony to Left Eye’s skills as a rapper.

I’ve secretly always wanted to learn that rap, to be able to do it whenever the song comes on, in the same way that I’ve always wanted to learn the percussion sequence from THIS SONG, so I can perform it whenever the chance might arise.

Anyway…

Let’s get down to it.

* * *

The idea of contentment is a dangerous one to discuss, inasmuch as there are entire parts of our culture and society that only function properly when we throw contentment out of the window. Being happy with what you have takes you out of this loop that so many people get stuck in, replacing what isn’t broken with new things because they’re new, because we just can’t help but always wanting more.

For example, I had a student last year who asked me for some help getting some of the Google apps installed on a new phone of his. I spent some time helping the kid get the right apps and getting them properly configured. As we were talking during this process, I asked him, “What did you do with your old phone?”, to which he replied, “I traded it in to get this phone.” When I asked him what was wrong with his old phone, he said that there wasn’t anything wrong with his old phone, and that he just wanted a new phone. I finished helping him with the apps, and then we parted company. I don’t think he even knew that what he was doing was problematic, especially if you carry that philosophy into other areas.

–> “I don’t like my house anymore, so I’ll get a new one.” That’s fine, but you’ll lose equity every time, and a thirty-year mortgage is going to be a thirty-year mortgage regardless of how many times you decide to start one, or how late in life you are when you start your last one.

–> “I don’t like my church anymore, so I’m going to switch churches.” I guess you can do that if you want, but you’ll damage relationships with the friends that you’ve made, as you move to a place where no one will know who you are.

–> “I don’t like my spouse anymore, so I’m going to file for divorce.” Whether or not this particular mindset has contributed to the high divorce rates in this country, you can’t argue about the kind of damage that this causes to families everywhere.

Maybe, people who lack contentment just have a problem seeing something through to the end. But, your average movie-goer (back when movie theaters were a thing) sits in the seat until the final credits roll, even when they don’t like how the movies going, so maybe it’s something else. I’ve got other theories.

* * *

However, in our attempt to avoid the one extreme, we should be careful not to dive headlong into the other extreme. If it’s not right to never be content, then it can’t be right to always be content, either. People, who are content in situations where they shouldn’t be, are also in a bad position.

Some people would just call this lazy, but I don’t know if that explains the whole situation. I think that there must be some other factors that are contributing to what it is that people are thinking when they stay where they’re at, even though they shouldn’t. Just as people who lack contentment probably aren’t just incapable of a full-length commitment, people who stay when they should go, are probably more complex than ‘just lazy’.

So, to summarize, the idea of contentment is a tricky balancing act; it’s important for us to be able to recognize when we should be okay with where we’re at, and we should also be able to recognize when our moves and changes are necessary for the improvement of our circumstances.

* * *

Each of the verses in the song tell a story about a situation where people are discontent and chasing after things that aren’t necessary, that are –in fact– ill-advised. I don’t know if you know anyone who just doesn’t take advice, ever when it’s good advice, but Waterfalls tells about those situations where things don’t really work out when you are set to disregard the wise counsel of the people around you.

I know I have been in situations before when, surrounded by the advice of good and intelligent people in my life, I’ve chosen to do what I felt was appropriate, only to discover afterward that others were right all along.

In those situations, where I’ve been “chasin’ waterfalls”, instead of “stick[ing] to the rivers and the lakes that [I’m] used to”, I’d have to say that my choices were more a result of immaturity than anything else. I think that we are more likely to take advice and heed it when we realize that there are people around us who’ve made mistakes that we don’t necessarily have to repeat.

So, if nothing else, check out the song and make careful decisions when it comes to being content with what you’ve got.

 

The Horizon