F(utility)
F(utility) My greatest pride is that I live Not according to the laws of modern men, Who know full well how to maximize Using all the bells and whistles of modern life, But who, for all their innovation, Forget the purpose of creation. And so they gab about success, Gauging with all metrics except for happiness. Yes, look at all the time you save! But time as that would be better spent in the grave.
Composition Notes
This poem was inspired by Alan Seeger’s “Sonnet to Sidney” in which Seeger gives himself “credit for the way” that he has “Shunned the ideals of [his] present day.” He continues by explaining that he has turned “from the mob that buys Success / By sacrificing all Life’s better part.” These lines resonate with me because I find that there is still an ever growing mob that pursues the wrong form of success and does so by any means necessary, sacrificing the better parts of life.
We are so fixated on things that help us produce the most, yet we fail to realize that productivity is only as good as what we are producing, and therein lies the problem with our modern obsession.
Production should align with our purpose of creation, which is an upward striving to glorify God and enjoy him forever. When our production is properly aligned with this purpose, it leads to clarity and fulfillment, drawing us closer to our Creator.
This is an upward climbing out of Plato’s cave and into the light of our Savior, and so our fixation on things that help us produce is not inherently a problem, for many things serve as a staircase to divinity.
But more often than not, we become fixated on things that don’t help us climb at all, but instead only help us dig, and we become so entranced with how effective these tools are that we don’t realize how dim it has become and how far we have strayed from the Light.
F(utility) is a reminder for myself that happiness and fulfillment should be the way that I quantify success, and that my plans for life should align with God’s calling, not man’s.