the more life is understood in terms of a…

Page 114 the more life is understood in terms of a single enterprise in which one succeeds or fails on one's own merits, the more tempting, it will be to identify as a loser, or a winner, a failure or a success. Through the 19th century, American self-worth was increasingly measured by prosperity. The financial panics that crashed the US economy in gendered notches, poverty and material hardship, but spiritual collapse in those who failed. The land stinks with suicide, Emerson wrote during the crash of 1837 as men who are unable to support themselves, or their families took their own, lives in shame.

— from The Air Traffic Controller (God)

In the book

It is permitted — it is even expected — to find the religious road genuinely difficult; the challenge of the road is part of the road, and what we are after is not a borrowed certainty but a faith that is your own and therefore real. The danger is only in pretending the sky has no tower because you cannot always see it, or in imagining your life is a solo enterprise on which you alone succeed or fail by your own merit, which is the surest recipe for both arrogance and despair. And make no mistake — there are genuinely destructive forces loose in a life, headwinds that want to pull you off the heading, and naming them honestly is part of flying well. — The Air Traffic Controller (God)

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