The Successful Dead
Recently, a story emerged of a 24 year old man whose fate mirrored that of Icarus in the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus who attempted to fly using artificial wings. In the real life story, the young man named James had been brought up in a rather affluent home from his childhood. James’ father was an astute businessman and had made fortunes over the years. Furthermore, he had only one child to take care of and no other financial burdens. However, when James was only 14 years old, his father suffered from multiple misfortunes including discovering that he had stage 4 cancer, having a panic attack while driving which led to him causing an accident, and heavy expenses in medication that saw his fortunes dwindle. The dad later passed on. James’ mother remained a single parent with no other source of income besides a business the husband had left, which was not performing quite well and was shut down with time.
James’ mother was forced to cut down expenses and to encourage James to do the same. James, being used to a life of affluence, felt that his mother had no ambition and was comfortable with a mediocre lifestyle. By the time he turned 16, James had decided to pursue his own ambitions, and chose a rather negative approach to it. When the mother realized James had joined a drug-dealing gang, she admonished him and advised him to desist from over-ambition as it would be to his own detriment. She further cautioned James from time to time to seek a more fulfilling life through hard work and good education. All these fell into deaf ears as James was reveling in the glory of easy money from the drugs his gang dealt in. Eventually, James was gunned down by a rival gang at the age of 24, losing his life to over-ambition, just like Icarus.