"Americans are constantly in search of an upgrade. It's a sickness that's infused into our blood, a dissatisfaction with the ordinary that's instilled in us from childhood. Instead of staying connected to the divine beauty and grace of everyday existence -- the glimmer of sunshine on the grass, the blessing of a cool breeze on a summer day -- we're instructed to hope for much more. Having been told repeated stories about the fairest in the land, the most powerful, the richest, the most heroic (Snow White, Pokémon, Ronald McDonald, Lady Gaga), eventually we buy into these creation myths and concede their overwhelming importance in the universe. Slowly we come to view our own lives as inconsequential, grubby, even intolerable."
