Two weeks ago my brother-in-law Tom Keane received the Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement, the highest honor the DuPont company gives to its scientists and engineers. Close family members were invited by the company to Wilmington, Delaware for several days where we celebrated the recognition received by Tom and five other long-time fellow achievers.

Amid all the hoopla of a professional high-tech award ceremony before a large audience,  the six received medals from the CEO. The next day, in another ceremony, the company unveiled plaques engraved with the faces of the honorees. It seemed the private industry equivalent of adding their images to the side of Mount Rushmore.

Tom received all these honors with modesty. In his acceptance speech after being given the medal, he told the audience that what counted for him most was his family. And he acknowledged that he could not have accomplished anything, during his forty-six year career, without the collaboration of many colleagues.

Success like this comes to relatively few people. Most of us never achieve so much or receive recognition of this sort during long years of work. Instead, we may be  tempted  to envy the success of others. “Could I but achieve something worthy of wide recognition,” this subtle temptation suggests, “then that success would heal whatever is lacking in me.”

We live in a culture that is notoriously success-driven. People everywhere in America crave becoming wealthy and recognized. Nowadays dot-com millionaires are envied for having scored brilliant successes so quickly.

The myth of the self-made man still holds its grip on our society. “Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” and other such clichés retain their power to influence our imaginations when we think of what success means.

Success in itself is something good. Whenever we manage to accomplish some-thing significant, our strong impulse is to feel good about it. If  others recognize what we have done and honor us for it, so much the better. An accomplished life, an honored life is much to be desired.

At the same time, success can be spiritually dangerous. It can close us off to what is most important in life and make us think of ourselves as self-sufficient. The person whose success has gone to his head has fallen victim to illusion and may have damaged his soul.

Of course, failure has its dangers as well. Repeated failing can make us lose heart. It can cause us to give up confidence that anyone, human or divine, really cares about us. Ultimately, it can drive us toward despair.

Let me suggest here an approach to success that can satisfy both our natural craving for achievement/personal recognition and the deeper demands of the spirit.    

Perhaps the answer is to be prepared to accept as gift whatever success may come our way. After all, there is no such thing as the self-made person, man or woman. We all get somewhere only through God-given talents and by the help of countless other people. Seeing success from this angle can enrich our spiritual life.

Besides recognizing success as a gift we also need to redefine it. Seen spiritually, success cannot be identified only with material achievement or reputation or power, but must include fidelity and self-knowledge and the ability to love. Devoted spouses, parents who truly cherish their children, and people of spirit who reverence all life and show compassion for other human beings – all these people must be recognized as truly successful.

Public television this week featured the life of Joe DiMaggio, the storied Yankee center fielder. According to the program, DiMaggio, when off the baseball field, was a painful failure as a husband, a father, and a human being. He seems never to have had the spiritual values necessary for success in these roles. On the diamond, he set a consecutive game hitting streak that has lasted almost sixty years. But in real life, he failed miserably at roles infinitely more important than hitting.

I feel happy for my brother-in-law that he has achieved so much and has been accorded such honor. But I feel even happier that he has the spiritual vision not to be seduced by the sweet-smelling incense that has wafted his way. He has clearly shown him-self a man of spiritual values who knows what is truly important in life.

Richard Griffin