Searching Kayak.com
One of my simple joys in life, after the kids are in bed and my wife is reading or watching one of “her” shows, is to go online and make travel plans. To research airfare and stopovers in foreign cities. To read about overland bus travel or the reliability of a railroad system. This is what Elizabeth Dunn writes about in her book “Happy Money”, where she describes the French verb se réjouir which is used to “capture the experience of deriving pleasure in the present from anticipating the future.”[1]
In a study that was published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life[2], there were findings that showed that when it comes to vacations or travels, the largest boost in happiness comes from the act of planning the vacation, or researching the trip, or simply dreaming about the time away (even more than the trip itself). For me, this time of after-hours reading illustrates the kind of desire that I have, especially for something that is new or exciting or different.
In a sense, I am the kind of consumer that William T. Cavanaugh is describing in his excellent book Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire. In this slender, four chapter volume, the author is exploring the connections between free-market economics with Christian theology, as well as the ethical and practical outcomes of this nexus.
He begins the book by asking the simple, yet deceptively complex question, “when is a market ‘free’?”[3] Rather than spending his time getting caught in the tar-pit of the classic battle between people like Milton Friedman and Karl Marx, Cavanaugh moves the discussion in a different direction. He relies on St. Augustine to deconstruct the very idea of something being “free” or experiencing “freedom”.
Rather than being contented with a “negative freedom”, where we are only talking about a lack of outside interference, Cavanaugh makes the case for a more full understanding of what is really free. He writes, “the key to true freedom is not just following whatever desires we happen to have, but cultivating the right desires.”[4]
This is where Augustine comes in. For Cavanaugh, Augustine’s view of freedom is “not simply a negative freedom from, but a freedom for, a capacity to achieve certain worthwhile goals. All of those goals are taken up into the one overriding telos of human life, the return to God.”[5]
He offers various examples of what this teleological freedom would look like. In production, manufacturing, marketing, economic policies and even personal shopping habits. Cavanaugh is clearly in conversation with authors like Vincent J. Miller, as he repeatedly cites examples from Consuming Religion to help bolster his point.
Cavanaugh is Roman Catholic and his faith perspective comes through in this book. Not only with the way that he ends by talking about the Eucharist, but also throughout the book, in the way that he walks the line between the materiality and physical goodness of creation, along with a conviction that the purposes of God, or the telos of human life, is bigger than just these “things”.
In his review, Eric G. Flett writes, “the usefulness of the book would have been significantly increased if this concept (the ends of telos of human life) were developed as thoroughly as those involving the dynamics of consumer culture in Chapter 2.”[6]
And in the Christian Century magazine, David Miller writes, “the book has some limitations. Structurally, the four chapters at times seem like unrelated essays. The main contours and arguments are well positioned in the introduction, but the book ends abruptly with the final chapter.”[7]
Even with these critiques, which wanted more from this book, there is plenty here to chew on and digest.
Returning to my opening reflection on my late-night travel planning, I am thinking about it through the lens of this book. Maybe, it isn’t just that I desire to buy plane tickets, but also that I have a kind of disordered love, or dissatisfaction with “normal life”. Cavanaugh says, “This dissatisfaction is what produces the restless pursuit of satisfaction in the form of something new. Consumerism is not so much about having more as it is about having something else; that’s why it is not simply buying but shopping that is the heart of consumerism.”[8]
The good news is, that according to the Bible, the material world and all of creation is really “good”. As Christians, we affirm this goodness and also seek to live in the world as God’s people. According to Cavannaugh, “we are passionate, desiring creatures, and this is good…. We desire because we are alive. Created things, however, though essentially good, always fail fully to satisfy because they are not ultimate.”[9]
And this is what brings us to one of St. Augustine’s most famous lines, which is really a prayer. He writes, “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”[10]
Perhaps we all have restless hearts, as Augustine describes. Perhaps our hearts lead us to be dissatisfied and to seek after the new or different as Cavanaugh claims. Perhaps my own searching for travel information is really part of a larger searching.
The human project, as it comes across in this book, points us toward the end, the telos, the final home that we have with God. It asks the reader to consider more closely not only our own habits and desires, but also the ways we think about the economy around us and how we participate knowingly or unknowingly in systems that are not finally free. This book is a step away from “negative freedom” and toward a more full understanding of that word.
[1] Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending (New York: Simon&Schuster, 2013), 80.
[2] Jeroen Nawijn et al., “Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday,” Applied Research in Quality of Life 5, no. 1 (March 2010): 35-47, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11482-009-9091-9(accessed February 15, 2018).
[3] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 2.
[4] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 11.
[5] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 7-8.
[6] Eric G. Flett, review of Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, by William T. Cavanaugh, Cultural Encounters 7, no. 2 (January 1, 2001): 97, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=48e7720e-07e2-48a3-8a98-11507c785b45%40sessionmgr101 (accessed February 15, 2018).
[7] David W. Miller, review of Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, by William T. Cavanaugh, The Christian Century, April 7, 2009, 48, https://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2009-04/being-consumed-economics-and-christian-desire (accessed February 15, 2018).
[8] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 35.
[9] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 49.
[10] Saint Augustine, Confessions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3.
About the Author
Dave Watermulder
11 responses to “Searching Kayak.com”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Kudos on your willingness to admit your were one of the guilty. LOL. I was hiding behind my bobble-head and start wars collection too much to demonstrate the same bravery. The reality you showed is that we are all guilty of this form of rationalization probably far more than we like to admit.
Do you think there is a point where are consumerism is simply a filler for a anxiousness to make it home to heaven?
Ha! I think the consumerism is a kind of dissatisfaction with life as we know it. So, in that sense, a longing for something better or more beautiful is inside of us–which we can definitely conceive of as a longing for heaven. For me, there’s both holy and un-holy dissatisfaction, and that’s where I always struggle to keep it straight.
Dave,
I appreciated your use of the term “disordered passions” – very Ignatian! I’ve grown to appreciate that term as I reflect on my own life and review my weaknesses and frail human tendencies. Much sin just comes from loving something else more than where we should direct our love.
Hi Dave,
Your Blogs are always full of good research and deep quotes. Well done Brother.
I totally agree that the anticipation of the trip is as good or sometimes even better than the actual trip. I never knew there was an actual term and definition for it.
What an awesome quote you reminded us from St Augustine, “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Amen!
Hey Dave- Thank you for your thoughtful and pastoral reflection. You modeled humility in a way that spoke to me. I share the consumer yearning. Way to go on bringing out some Augustine- the affirmation of the material world and our misplaced loves. I also think your travel searching habit has a lot to do you with being a “7” and an “ENFP.” 🙂
Hi Dave! I can totally relate to your analogy of planning a trip – although I embrace every experience while on the trip as just as, or more wonderful, than I thought it would be. There aren’t many material items that I want or need but the desire to travel is at the top of the list! I describe myself as having ‘wanderlust’ but truly believe I feel closest to God when I’m exploring his creation and meeting new people around the globe. Or perhaps, I’m just part of the problem described by Cavanaugh…detached from where I am. What is it about planning travel that speaks to you?
love this quote, “the key to true freedom is not just following whatever desires we happen to have, but cultivating the right desires”. I think it reminds us that we have a obligation to be proactive in our choices. Thanks Dave for your “wanderlust” as Jean talked about. It keeps your eyes on the world more than most.
Dave,
In reading your introduction about planning travel I was reminded of my tradition of extending the anticipation of Christmas morning to torturous lengths when my kids were young because I knew that the most exciting period was the anticipation. I think this is the essence of advent yet, often lost in other aspects of the season.
Maybe the rampant consumption so evident in our culture is actually a misguided attempt to realize our actual telos, a life in communion with God. Perhaps the Church has made this telos overly spiritual so that it does not connect with the physical reality experienced in our day-to-day lives. How do we rectify this?
Great connection! I find myself sometimes enjoying movie trailers and waiting for the next movie to come out, more than I actually enjoy the movie. I almost always love trailers, but movies dissapoint me all the time. I love the anticipation I suppose.
Dave,
Love the correlation you make with yourself and the book. The “rush” of mapping out your trips vs. the contemplation of dissatisfaction with normal life was a great lens into your psyche. How will this reading affect your reflections on your planning?
Jason
You crack me up Dave. I’m thinking your hobby of planning trips you would like to take not only gives you the same emotional response as taking them but also is a whole lot cheaper. By the way, I don’t think it means you are not satisfied with your current life, I think you just like to dream about adventure. My favorite quote of your post has to be…“you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” This so beautifully puts what the answer is to this consumer world.