Jungle beasts and breakthrough dreams
The novelist Henry James once wrote a remarkable story called “The Beast in the Jungle.” It told of a man, John Marcher, who believed that something important, and possibly catastrophic, would one day happen to him. He was not sure what it would be, but he believed it would surely come and give meaning to his life.
He had a friend, May Bartram, who cared deeply for him. He did not value her as he might have. He did not allow May to come close to him, for fear his coming big event – the beast in the jungle – might somehow harm her. He was too busy waiting for the transformation of his life to occur.
Years passed. Archer and May remained friends, but never attained the glory they might have known if Archer had allowed May to replace his long-awaited beast, the great unknown event. That event never arrived. At the story’s end, Archer realizes that the “beast” he had waited for was the fact that he would never experience a grand event. His life had been a futile, humdrum waste. The closing of “The Beast in the Jungle” is regarded by many critics as one of the most powerful pieces of writing known.
In any life, a version of James’s “Beast” is the dream of experiencing a breakthrough. Millions of people go through life harboring a belief (or at least a hope) that one day a breakthrough will happen to us. Whatever its form, it will revolutionize our lives in some majestic or meaningful fashion.
Breakthrough dreams have limitless forms. Hollywood films and romance novels describe the ultimate emotional breakthrough: two people, longing for love, finally meet the partner fate has designed for them. Plodding writers (and most of us are) cling to the dream of at last putting together the words that will rocket us onto the Pulitzer-nominee or best-seller lists. Politically ambitious men and women may toil for years in low-level posts, waiting for the moment when an irresistible voice declares, “This is your breakthrough moment. You can be the next governor! Now get going!”
Nowhere are there more real or imagined breakthroughs than in the realms of religion. Even the smallest born-again experience can be treated as a spiritual breakthrough. The altar-calls, the come-to-Jesus urgings of Billy Graham and other evangelists have certainly triggered thousands of life-changing shifts.
How can we tell whether we have undergone a genuine breakthrough? One measure is the length of its endurance. Two weeks later we may have reverted to our old ways and outlook, and have resumed our waiting for our personal beast in the jungle.
But if the changes in our behavior and attitudes stick with us, we can be more certain that we have indeed turned the corner and are heading down a strange new street.
Often, a breakthrough comes masquerading as dumb luck. We’re sitting there half asleep, with our thumb in our ear, when this vivacious woman sits down and says, “Didn’t I meet you at the cinematographers party?” Bingo! Breakthrough! (Of course, she might be only a high-class hooker. Apparent breakthroughs should be scrutinized).
A mistaken assumption, suddenly tossed aside, can usher in a breakthrough. I once knew a young nearsighted man who assumed he could never serve in the armed forces because of his poor eyesight. One day in the city he happened to stroll past a Navy recruiting office. On a sudden whim, he entered and said, “Please test my vision.” The Navy’s verdict: “With your glasses on, you make the grade. You wanna join up?” He did, and his life changed forever, in ways both bad and good.
A major longed-for breakthrough held by millions of people is winning the lottery. Each day these folks lean back and dream of the day when their ship finally comes in, and they are rolling in millions of dollars. Then all will be well. All problems will be solved. A new life will unfold. The financial planning experts ask, “Do you have a retirement program?”
The most truthful response, if it were spoken, is “Yes. It’s called winning the lottery.”
Until that day arrives, most of us will continue to engage in that most common of all breakthrough strategies. It goes by at least two names. One is “nose to the grindstone.” The other is “shoulder to the wheel.” Instead of worshipping the illusion that our lives will one day be transformed by the sudden arrival of a jungle beast or other breakthrough, we simply push on, one step at a time, each day playing the cards that are dealt us.
Often as not, such long-term behavior can become its own subtle, secretive breakthrough. The cannons may not roar, the bands may not play, the headlines may not scream. Even so, life’s many rewards, victories and satisfactions may be there for the counting.
Bob Driver is a former columnist for the Clearwater Sun. His email address is .