Mummies in the Sand

Maybe the Egyptians had it right: Spend your entire life preparing for the life to come—the afterlife. Build a magnificent tomb in which to spend eternity. Stock it with food and wine, gold and chariots. After all, you're going to be dead a lot longer than you're going to be alive.
But pharaohs like Ramses II hedged their bets. No one in Egyptian history built more temples and monuments to his own ego than the great Ramses. Father of more than 100 children, he ruled for over 50 years. He wanted his own subjects to know—as well as everyone else who walked the earth for thousands of years—of his achievements. I guess he wasn’t counting on life everlasting. He wanted to immortalize himself in stone.

The common people, who had a belief in the afterlife, couldn’t afford to build monuments to themselves. They were lucky if they could afford a cut-rate version of mummification in which to preserve their bodies. These common folk—the workers who actually built Egypt’s great monuments and pyramids—were buried in the desert sand, no gold or jewels weighing them down. Nothing to fear from tomb robbers—just the jackals.

Things haven’t changed much.

You see the Ramses prototype everywhere you look in American society. Executives in the corporate world sacrifice everything—family and friends, to make it to the top. Sixty-hour work weeks leave no time for anything else. And when they retire, long-divorced and alienated from children they hardly know, they can look back and feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. They were somebody; they made vice-president. Too bad no one will etch it on their tombstones, or put up monuments.

And their subordinates—the workers who helped get them there—are forgotten. Except by their children and friends. Who’s lived a better life?

You see the same concept in America’s cult of celebrity. People don’t want 15 minutes of fame—they want a lifetime of fame. And if they can’t have it, they want to look like their favorite celebrities, eat the same foods, do the same type of gym workouts and drive similar cars. “When I grow up, I want to be Paris Hilton.” Grow up—right.

Many people are not satisfied just being themselves, raising a family, being a good parent, and a good friend. There’s this drive to be a “somebody.” For many people, the power and money achieved through being a somebody justifies their existence—no matter what the cost to their family and friends.

To me, the only things that matter in this life are love and respect. If you’re lucky, and you work at it, you’ll get the love of your family and a few close friends.

If you’re good at what you do, and respect others, you’ll get respect. Robert Bolt wrote that “respect is water to a man in the desert.” It is.

What’s wrong with living your life in a small pond, and having these things? Sounds like success, that is, to be a mummy in the sand.