Tyler Derden

I always think back to the fight club line, where Tyler Derden and the Edward Norton guy (can't remember the character's name) are on a bus, speaking of all of the misconceptions in life, and Tyler Derden says, as a beautiful model on a billboard passes, "Self improvement is masturbation."  Now, we'll forego the irony that this was said by none other than Brad Pitt, who probably had to 'improve' himself at the gym for months before the filming of the movie, and we'll skip to the existential question of whether or not there's any truth in it.  I figure, the lines that ring in my head over and over are few, and the ones that stick may have some importance.

Well, I was born in the Shenandoah Valley, where the verdant hills put forth a swell of life in the spring time, karsts bubble all around with clear spring water, and where piety, simplicity, and the conception of humility are thick as molasses on a January morning.  I think all of us who came from the culture of piety and humble acts would agree that self improvement, for lack of better words, is masturbation.  All of the chestbeating and body toning and self aggrandizement are for the birds, and the real truth of life comes from acts of charity and our protestant hard work, the same hard work that brought early church members across an ocean just to find freedom to choose their personal spirituality and work hard, believing, the rest of their days.  These weren't Carnegies or Vanderbilts or Rockefellers ruling the world and monopolizing wealth, but instead were Showalters, Stauffers, Knicely's, and Hesses, all looking for a piece of land to build on and live out their faith simply, for the rest of the time they were alotted.  Recently, while doing some work in the library of congress, I came across the census and tax records from Rockingham County in 1789.  My great grandfather 7 times over was listed there.  Daniel Stover, Dayton, 17 cows, 0 negros, 1 dwelling, 3 mares.  That was all he had, and probably all he ever expected to have.  While other founders of the nation were banking oil wells and steel, Daniel Stover was tending 17 cows.  I would gamble to say that the wealth of these two classes was inversely proportional to their eventual satisfaction in life.

I'm in the process now of retraining myself, though, to find a balance between the oil barrons and the pietists.  The maximum simplicity, although nobel, will not ever have appreciable effect upon the actions of those who will rule this tiny world, and I don't think that it is responsible to have such a vibrant hue of enlightenment, and choose not to share it with the world outside.  I choose self improvement, in health, and education, and in the joy that I try to bring to others.  The key is finding the balance.  You can't see very far if you're on one side of the fence or the other, but only when you are sitting on top, teetering between extremes and risking collapse, only then is the horizon truly clear.