St. Augustine and the Desperate Housewives

While I was trying to catch up on watching desperate housewives, there was a particular part on the show that caught my attention because it was a topic that we discussed in class about St. Augustine. Well to summarize the show Desperate Housewives, it is basically about the lives of female friends living in a suburban neighborhood.  Each episode uncovers secrets and truths among the housewives and even their husbands at times. Bree Van de Kamp-Hodge is a fictional character on desperate housewives that is played by actress Marcia Cross. Bree is a mother of two and was widowed after her husband died, but then remarried a guy named Orson Hodge. Orson Hodge is a fictional character off the show played by actor Kyle MacLachian. Orson Hodge was a prestigious dentist that lost his career after hitting one of the other housewives husband with his car and driving off. He was sent to prison. The reason he did that was to keep his secrets hidden. But anyway, at the end of season 4, Bree became an author and wrote her own cookbook (Bree is known for her wonderful culinary skills). In season 5 her cookbook was published and she also opened a successful catering business. When Orson got out of jail he needed a job since nobody would hire him because he’s an ex-con. Bree gave him a job in her business, but it didn’t hold any weight. She also didn’t like him making decisions or trying to change recipes. Bree felt like his management was totally different from her vision of her business. Bree didn’t want him to have any say in the company, and the company started a schism between Bree and Orson. Orson begins stealing, initially to punish people who he feels have been rude, and then to hurt Bree for not making him apart of the company and because Bree was too consumed with the company. Ok now to connect the reading with the show… so I was reading “The Stolen Fruit”, “Why Men Sin”, and “The Anatomy of Evil” (book 2 chapters 4-6) in St. Augustine’s confessions and it just reminded me of Orson Hodge. St. Augustine stole a pear that he didn’t want or even need at all. The same with Orson Hodge, he stole miscellaneous things that were of no importance to him. Foul was the evil, and he loved it. Because Bree has a high reputation and he wanted to see her squirm so then she will quit the business. He put his wife and other people through grief, because he was angry and wanted to get revenge. St. Augustine said, “Anger seeks vengeance: who takes vengeance with more justice than you?” Stealing random items was not what his “unhappy soul” desired. He wanted to become closer to his wife but he went about it the wrong way.  To me he had disorderly love of God, and the sanctity of his marriage. After Orson told his wife why he has been stealing, he demanded that she sell the business. In the end Bree got a divorce with Orson and Orson really didn’t want a divorce. Everything he did to Bree to teach her a lesson, ended his marriage; “sadness wastes away over things now lost which desires once took delight.”

St Augustine's Confessions

Ok so there are a few topics I would like to talk about in St. Augustine’s confessions.  One thing that caught my attention was in book 1 Chapter 13 where St. Augustine was talking about studies in Greek and Latin. St. Augustine talks about a fictional character named Dido, who killed herself for love.  He claims that if people cried for her, then they are sinning because they love the fictional character more than their selves. To quote Augustine he said, “Who can be more wretched than the wretched one who takes no pity on himself, who weeps over Dido’s death, which she brought to pass by love for Aeneas, and who does not weep over his own death, brought to pass by not loving you, O God, light of my heart, bread for the inner mouth of my soul, power wedding together my mind and the bosom of my thoughts? I did not love you, and I committed fornication against you…”God made me a human being. Which means I have emotions, and as a being, emotions can’t be controlled all the time. I think God made me extra emotional too, lol. There isn’t an off and on switch that tells me to stop displaying emotions no matter the situation. Trust me I wish it were that easy. I’m known to cry during a sad part of a movie or show. Like the movie ‘John Q’, I practically cried my eyes out during that movie. I cry during sad movies, not really because the character is dying, but mostly because I sometimes put myself in those certain situations and then I see how stuff like that effects people and how situations like that happen everyday in real life. So watching ‘The Passion of the Christ’ and crying during the movie is a sin? Because I get a mental image of my Lord suffering that is a sin? I get that St. Augustine is saying a fictional character (such as an actor), but sometimes a fictional character helps us see and understand certain situations. To enter into the Lords Kingdom, we must show compassion. That does not mean that I care about a fictional character more than myself or more than God, because I know in the end its acting coming from the character, but then again something like that is happening to someone in the world. I disagree that in doing that, that is a sin of disordered love. So, St. Augustine: 0 Nena: 1. Lol, that was a joke, har har. If St. Augustine were still alive, I would tell him that he needs to relax a little. He is very obsessed with sin. I’m afraid to even say I love ice cream or anything for that matter because it is a sin of disordered love. One thing I do agree with St. Augustine is that in book 4 chapter 10 about a changing universe. “For whatever way the soul of man turns, it is fixed upon sorrows any place except in you, even though it is fixed upon beautiful things that are outside of you and outside itself.” St. Augustine is saying that anything you turn to will cause you sorrow except for God. Because, God never changes but everything else does. A particular reason this passage caught my attention is because at this moment, I’m having a difficult time with one of my good friends. I feel like they have really disappointed me and this is not the only time, there have been other times too.  Even your own mother causes you sorrow, anything you think that won’t will. The people that you love will cause you sorrow because they are always changing; they are becoming more or less everyday. I now understand why St. Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” You can’t rest your heart in any human being because they will cause you sorrow.

Kanye West's Version of the Good Life

Ok, well I was sitting in my room listening to the Kanye West album titled ‘Graduation’ and there is a song called ‘The Good Life’ on the album. Then I started thinking, if Aristotle were still alive he would be shaking his head in disapproval, lol. On page 97 & 98 (1095b15-1095b25) Aristotle believed there are three different lives: The life of consumption (life of pleasure), life of political activity (virtue), and the life of reflection (wisdom). Well obviously their views on living the good life are different. Aristotle believed the life of consumption, which most view as happiness, is wrong and will not give you happiness. “Now most of the utterly slavish sort of people obviously decide in favour of a life that belongs to grazing cattle, and not without reason, given that many of those things in high places behave like Sardanapallus.” In this quote Aristotle is trying to say us human beings are rational human beings. We have to find a unique function and to live with rational activity. We will not achieve full potential as human beings with the life of consumption.

Well let’s move along to Kanye’s type of living the good life. Kanye cites a lot of material items like the features of owning a Ferrari vs. owning a regular car, alcohol, and going on vacations, as the reason he's living the good life. In the song Kanye says, “I always had a passion for flashin’ (meaning having flashy things), befo’ I had it, I closed my eyes and imagined. The good life!” Kanye feels good and happy when he has the fine things in life (extravagant clothes, jewelry, cars etc.) However, it should be noted that Kanye spent years of his life going to school, working regular jobs, attempting to get a conventional education, and all the things people claim you should do to live a good life. However, he wasn't happy with that life. Those were other people's paths, not his. He did it his way, making beats and writing songs that he's always dreamed about. To him, that's the good life. In the process, he's helped open doors to individuals who have the passions of making music to express their talent and uniqueness. Also in the song, he sort of leaves what the "the good life" is open to interpretation when he exclaims the good life feeling like an array of different cities; “The good life, it feels like Houston, it feels like Philly, it feels like D.C., it feels like V.A. or the Bay or Yay. Ayy! This is the good life.” The good life could be just how you feel when you're trying something new or seeing new things, that weren't possible when you were not happy with what you're doing. I feel that Kanye thinks he has already achieved his maximum potential. That he is already unique, and that makes him happy. But the question is, “Is he really happy?”

In our society pleasure is the main source of happiness. Whatever makes you feel good you get happiness from that. Most people look at the entertainment media and try to imitate their lives. The entertainment media shows that living the glamorous, luxurious life is the good life (i.e. being rich and spending money on fabulous things such as: vacations, clothes, cars, house, etc.) There are plenty songs that view the good life as being rich and getting anything you want. But Aristotle is questioning if all that really makes you happy? Aristotle spoke about achieving eudaimonia, which means happiness. Eudaimonia is not an emotional state; it is more about being all that you can, fulfilling your potential. The idea is that by living in a way that reaches your full potential you flourish and show the best version of you that you can be. Aristotle thought that the practice of virtues would equate to happiness, in the sense of being all you could be. By virtues, Aristotle meant the act of achieving balance and moderation (pg. 117 1107a1-1107a25). Every action that Kanye makes to achieve happiness is certainly not intermediate. So pretty much Aristotle disagrees, and that’s not living the good life.

Aristotle's Happiness

Ok, so Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics is a little hard to digest. I had a hard time trying to grasp a few of his concepts. But after a few lectures, it starts to make sense. What I gathered so far from this book is that Aristotle is teaching us human beings the art of living, and how to live the good life.

           

            In book one, chapter one it describes how an intentional action leads to a telos; which means an end, goal, aim, or purpose. Every intentional action we make is aiming at something good, and it may or may not be a selfish good. Everything we do on purpose is good for somebody. This reminds me of the typical scenario in wars. A bomb is being thrown at many soldiers and one courageous soldier risks his life and covers the bomb with his body in order to save others lives. This isn’t a selfish good. The end result is not good for him, but good for others. But there is a difference among ends; some are activities, others are products apart from the activities that produce them. Activities an action is good whereas products is not necessarily good and may give you a different end product. One action can lead to a sequence of many ends. But ultimately the chain stops (1094 a20) and we achieve the chief good. For me, in attending college, I seek to get a degree so I can get a good job and live comfortably. The end result, living comfortably, would make me happy which is my chief good. But there are many products from the action of attending college. Such as, following my course requirements made me aware of different topics that educated me on different aspects of life and also gave me the tools to endure situations in life. But that wasn’t my intended goal; it just came along with trying to reach my chief good. Chief good= happiness= living well, doing well, and flourishing=healthy soul. Some equation right?  Feels like I’m in math class now. Anyway, but people have different opinions on what happiness is to them. Christians believe that just existence is being happy. Many people equate happiness with pleasure. Aristotle says happiness is not a feeling but an objective fact. Acting well is when you’re happy. Doing the right thing is happiness. “For a single swallow does not make spring, nor does a single day; in the same way, neither does a single day, short time, make a man blessed.” You must act well throughout a long period of time to achieve happiness. Happiness can only be achieved in complete excellence and living a complete life (p. 105 1100a1). So wait a minute, according to Aristotle I’m not happy. When I tell people I am living a happy life, it is not true? I have to die first to know if I lived a happy life? Wow, seems depressing to me. I somewhat disagree but I see what he is saying. I have to look at the time line of my life (which is still going on) to judge if I was happy. Because I don’t know if later in life something will cause me to be unhappy. Well my solution is I’ll just tell people I’m happy with my life right now for the time being :) Lol.

An issue that I wanted to also discuss is the differences of happiness between Plato and Aristotle. Plato believes your choices make you happy and Aristotle believes it is not up to your choices only, but fate as well. Hmmm.. I’m kind of stuck in the middle with this. To me it can go both ways. At first I was with Plato because I’ve been in a situation where I was very ill; this was a life and death situation. But that did not lead me to become a worse person, and I was still happy even though I had an unfortunate illness. Most people would have been unhappy but I wasn’t. Ultimately staying happy kept me alive and made me better. But I’ve seen somebody who was considered “good” by everybody lose everything in a blink of an eye. Even though he had faith in God, he was still unhappy. The loss of all his prized possessions in life harmed him.  *sigh* So I can see why the meaning of happiness is so hard to grasp. What do y’all think??