Being There

About four years ago, I was told to read Jerzy Kosinski's Being There. In those four years, I moved 3 times and donated a ton of books. Yet this one always managed to retain a spot on each bookshelf variation I purchased after moving. It was also the first book I decided to read.

"Yet plants were different from people. No plant is able to think about itself or able to know itself; there is no mirror in which the plant can recognize its face; no plant can do anything intentionally: it cannot help growing, and its growth has no meaning, since a plant cannot reason or dream."

Kosinski is conflicted about ambition. Chauncey Gardiner, the main character, is a plant--no growth, no ambition, no meaning, no dreams. He simply exists, things happen to him, and because of his guileless nature, a world filled with cloying ambition reacts to him as a refreshing antidote to a cynical world.

As I read the book, I was reminded of Winston Groom's Forrest Gump, which featured a character similar to Kosinski's Gardiner. In both stories, it is aspirational to live with childlike wonder, not expecting good things to happen; instead, just letting things happen.

It is reminiscent of Buddhist philosophy, much of which is intended to control desire. It paints a sharp contrast to Coelho's idea: "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."

It is difficult to find balance between these two philosophies. Most would agree that Gardiner and Gump have good things happen to them precisely because they are not looking. 

However, when a lack of desire turns into a lack of motivation, there is an arguably greater risk. When do we just sit around waiting for good things to happen in our lives?