This is most especially true of young people. In fact it seems to be an integral part of our culture. We celebrate our birthdays, Christmas, Easter, New Years Eve, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Labour Day, and Queens Birthday. We also have celebrations for various other life achievements like graduating school (primary, secondary and tertiary levels) as well as many other levels of achievement through out our lives. On top of this, we will take advantage of a favourable outcome in our sporting competitions, whether they are Rugby League, Australian Football League, or various other sports. The same also applies to motor sports and in particular the legendary Bathurst 1000. Apart from all of these special events, so to speak, there are various other times at which people decide to get together and party. Then there is the considerable amount of people who frequent pubs and clubs every weekend in order to drink and have a good time.
Why am I so thoroughly itemising every occasion that people use for a party? Simply because I wanted to show how frequently Australians like to party. Perhaps this is similar in many other countries also, and this may just be an attribute of human nature, that we like to celebrate and have a good time. And honestly who can blame a person for wanting to enjoy their life with friends.
However I wonder if we are partying ourselves to death in a most undesirable way. When I was still studying, I worked in numerous factories to pay for my studies. Overwhelmingly most of the people I met in these jobs were doing what Loverboy called "Working for the Weekend". Their working days were menial, boring and unfulfilling, made only mildly bearable by the radio that transported them mentally away from their mundane environment. All thoughts, all efforts, and all desires were for the weekend when they would get drunk, party hard, and hopefully find someone to "root".
To me this seemed to be the most dreary and depressing sort of existence I could imagine in our culture. One of the jobs I worked at was for a landscape supplier. His son had dropped out of university because of how difficult he found it, and the son had resigned himself to working in the factory, and eventually taking over his Fathers business. I had just about finished work there for the holidays and was to shortly return to University. He said to me that I would come back after next term and that I would not be able to finish my University degree. I silently vowed that I would never return to that factory, my resolve mostly driven by my dislike of the soul-less, superficial lifestyle associated with so many of the workers there. I knew that there had to be more to life than their shallow existence.
I disliked the coarseness of their language and their behaviour. I abhorred the way they treated women as objects of sexual conquest, and I loathed the pointless repetition of their lifestyles. However I think the thing that offended my sense of propriety most, was the inappropriateness in their lack of reason for celebration. If one was to try and pinpoint a reason for their apparent exuberance for the party lifestyle, the only answer to be found would be the celebration of maximising ones pleasure of the senses. One person I know put it more elegantly than I could so I will quote his motto: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, beer in one hand and boobs in the other, body thoroughly worn out, and screaming WOO HOO"
I felt then, and I feel perhaps even more strongly now, that celebration is infinitely sweeter and more satisfying when there is a good reason for it. Party for party's sake is a poor substitute for authentic celebration due to the victory of your favourite sports team, for instance. Even more so when the victory is personally yours, or you have had some fortuitous event occur. What is satisfying the most I believe is the celebration of the great things that God has done in our lives
There is a right time to laugh and an appropriate time to cry, and a time to party and a time to ponder. It seems to me that a fulfilling life is also a balanced life, whereby you respond appropriately to the given situation. Challenges in life are to be learned from (not shied away from or drowned out with alcohol) and good fortune is to be vigorously celebrated.
The perpetual pursuit of pleasure indicates two things to me. Firstly that people recognise that regular life is not enough to satisfy, so they constantly seek to maximise the joy and minimise the pain. And secondly that there is something missing from the attempts to enjoy life that just doesn't deliver the goods for the longings that we have.
There seems to be this rule at work where the efforts of continuing to maximise our enjoyment of life, will lead us to a place where there is no true satisfaction. Seeking to gain a fuller life (through seeking pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction) will cause us to actually lose what life we do have. I have seen it often, where the end result is in fact not more than when a person started, but less. There comes an enslavement to a person's life when they fall into the trap of relentlessly seeking pleasure, like an addiction to alcohol or drugs. This happens because the satisfaction lessens the more strenously we seek it, and the dulling effect is just like that of drugs, which cause a person to escalate into ever more powerful methods of satisfaction. The resulting life spiral sends a person to the very depths of a miserable existence.
Ironically though, when one seeks to do what is right there comes a joy that inexpressibly satisfies regardless of the circumstances. More of this perhaps next time when I wish to address further the concept of this longing that we have.
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