Mud Pies and Mad Men

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” CS Lewis

People always ask me where I get my ideas for a blog from. I’ll let you into a secret; I don’t know. I always assume that each blog entry will be my last. I press “Publish” and immediately think, that’s it, this time I’ve run dry, but within a couple of weeks another idea germinates, a pattern emerges, and I feel the desire to write something new rising within me and I can’t find rest until I press Publish again. This time the idea came from Donald Draper.

If you’ve not met Don Draper then let me introduce you. Don is the leading male from the American hit TV series, Mad Men (this blog contains spoilers). The TV show is set in 1960s Manhattan and is about the lives of the employees of a prosperous advertising agency on Maddison Avenue, Sterling Cooper. Don Draper is a partner at Sterling Cooper and is very much the alpha male in the office. He’s tall, handsome and masculine. He oozes confidence, exudes creative brilliance and thrives on the lifestyle of hard drinking, chain smoking and womanising. He drives a Cadillac, has a beautiful wife in a beautiful home, and is father to three all American kids. But all is not what it would seem…

Don is also a man with many secrets. Don’s whole life is built on a lie. His real name is Dick Whitman, but he assumed the identity of Lieutenant Donald Draper who was killed in action whilst fighting alongside Dick in Korea. Dick’s upbringing is a far cry from his alter ego’s city-that-never-sleeps existence. His mother was a 22-year-old prostitute who died in childbirth. He was then adopted by a family of alcoholic yokels who beat him physically and emotionally. Don’s life is all superficiality and no substance. As the storylines unfold you see that Don is actually really unhappy and the stress of maintaining the elaborate façade in front of friends, family and colleagues takes its toll.

Don Draper is a fictional character (in more ways than one), but his life speaks some home truths that tell us more about ourselves than we are sometimes comfortable with. Who can honestly say that in the idle moments of their private thoughts they haven’t fantasised about doing what Dick Whitman did? Who hasn’t been tempted to escape the taedium vitae by pursuing the pleasures of an epicurean lifestyle? And that’s Don’s biggest problem. He’s tried it and he still isn’t happy.

This isn’t a new problem. Philosophers and theologians have been talking about this for millennia. It is a problem that was defined beautifully by Pascal: “All men seek happiness, this is the motive of every man, even those who hang themselves… All complain – princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak… of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.” Pascal’s conclusion is illuminating: “the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”

The deepest longing of the human heart can’t be met by sensory experience, relationships, marriage or work. That’s not to say that those things are bad in esse, but that they can’t bring the ultimate satisfaction we long for. Our deepest desire is to be loved and accepted, not by fellow man, but by God. Deep down we know that since we were expelled to a place East of Eden we have missed the love of the Great Lover. But we settle for so much less, compounding our unhappiness. It’s contemporary idolatry, attempting to find happiness, meaning and identity in something other than God. We are like ignorant children who shun a holiday at the sea in favour of playing with mud pies in the slums. God has placed eternity in the heart of every man, and each page of the New Testament is rustling with the rumour that through Jesus it is an eternity that can make us truly happy.

“You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you” Augustine