Goals Worth Reaching For

I grew up in the Chicagoland area, and was in school while the Bulls won their six championships in eight years. While Michael Jordan was definitely the dominant player in each series, the team of Jordan, Pippen, and other players including Kukoc, Rodman, Armstrong, Paxton, Longley, Grant, and Cartwright, among many others. And of course, there was Phil Jackson at the helm. All the players on each of those teams, when they were growing up, they had a goal - sure, they wanted to be the best player they could be, but the goal was to be on a team that won the NBA championship. No one player did that alone, nor has there ever been a one-man show winner.

Today, we live in an age of extreme individualism.

In recent news stories, some research panel suggested that there might be a decreased benfit for routine mamograms in the overall population for women in their forties. The researchers were immediately chastised for not caring for those few individuals who have benefitted from the discovery of an unpredictable tumor early in life.

In nutrition, people assume they can eat whatever they want - because each night is special, or for some other recently popular reason, but they ignore the larger effect this pattern of behavior has on societal health.

Families wait longer and longer to have children because of the impact they will have on the parents' young adult lives, with the result that many more children are being born into lifelong health problems today than in the past.

People in America are also feeling more entitled to a large car, a big house, or access to civic centers without fully realizing the economic, environmental, and social responsibilities that go along with these acquisitions.

In part, I feel many of these problems are rooted in the social movement of individual liberation from societal norms in the 60's, when the baby boomers started using their numbers for social change. While many great achievements came from that era - minority civil rights, women's rights, and a great change in social discourse and awareness of diversity, there is a price for the individualism that was used as a tool for this great progress.

I am a member of the generation following the baby boomers. Actually, I fall somewhere between the Gen X'ers and the digital children graduating college today. I was raised and am falling victim to the lack of social norms my generation has been taught. We were, by and large, overprotected, lest we risk our individual well-being:
We were not taught how to cook for ourselves (men don't cook, and now, neither do women),
how to manage money,
how to wait for the trappings of life (read: wait for 20% down on a house), nor
how to engage in civic responsibility (that reeks of The Man).

We are, however, adults now, and just as a new President begins to own the legacy situations from his predecessor, we cannot claim victimhood of our situation to any positive end. I believe our generation needs to embrace our role as leaders of the future, and to define what that will be for ourselves.

Just as no great sports achievement can be done alone, I believe we must reject the trap of individualism and the greed that has come to be a part of that way of life. We must instead strive for common purpose and raise each other up by working for the better of the community first.

- Every person, for the betterment of themselves and their neighbors, must work to provide for themselves and their families so as not to require assistance from the common welfare, except in dire circumstance.

- Traditional lending (20% down for a house or a car) should be desired above immediate desire for an unaffordable house.

- Proper sized (large enough for needs, but no larger so as not to be wasteful) houses and cars should be pursued for a better quality of life. Supply your needs, and save the excess for other areas.

- Personal health should be an imperative, both for personal benefit and for a reduction of the cost to society.

- Supporting neighbors with local commerce, community involvement, and at the very least, familiarity for caring communities should be of the utmost importance.

- Supporting the fair application of the law for all, not for individual rights, but for community justice is also a necessity. If we are to expect the same effort from all, we need to provide a fair set of rules for all.

- Collective investment in benefitting a common purpose - be it health care, environmental impact, access to energy, or whatever the large issue of the day is. The litmus test should be "is this going to benefit the community as a whole?" If so, the individuals as part of that community will see benefits, even if some see more than others, but the chance for future generations born into that community will be better overall.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Let us have goals worth reaching for - striving for community goals will make us all better.