Ivan, as almost all of us, bases his efforts in life on the map provided by his culture. The culture values "the easy, agreeable, gay and always decorous [ ...] life, approved of by society and regarded by himself as natural." What map has been provided by your family, subculture, culture? What are the main destinations and goals and plans in your life? What should the tone of your life be, according to the map you've been provided?
Family. Prosperity. Happiness. Those are the big three in Chinese culture, and probably most other cultures as well. These are the definitions of a good life, at least from what I heard. Although, it is best to obtain and maintain all three, people say that happiness and family are the most important. But of course in our society, if you're not even slightly prosperous you cannot have either one. Therefore living by ourselves, happily with our family is not a true option. We all have to make the requirements of our financial need, and thus have to this role mapped out for us to satisfy those needs.
It is expected that we all have some kind of success story. But before we even get to approach that, there are some preparations that need to be made that occupy at least the first 21 years of our lives: school. We are all already moving along the road that society has mapped out for us. Once we get past this stage of our lives, we move onto picking our occupation. For me personally, being that I am of the Chinese race, there are certain options that I am more inclined to (mostly because of the expectation of my family, which are very similar to the expectations of other Chinese family I have encountered). Some of my options are: doctor, accountant, and pharmacist. It doesn't really matter which road I choose to go on, as long as it brings me to having some sort of financial basis then it's good.
The tone of my life has been and probably will be very negative, yet somewhat positive. Knowing that your life is not completely within your control is not quite so pleasing. But it does not mean that this negativity will occupy my mind all the time, and drag me down. There is still hope that within this arbitrary lifestyle that it will lead me to happiness- that I still have control of certain aspects of my life. Although it is frustrating to accept something so inevitable, it is also important to distract ourselves with the positive aspects of life, so that we're not living in complete misery. It might be a bad thing that we don't have much of a choice in the bigger picture, but that does not necessarily mean that the life given to us is bad (not saying that it isn't).
Similar to Ivan Illyich, we're trying to have some kind of success story. For me, although I say that we don't absolutely need money, I'm still most likely going to end up following the mainstream lifestyle. Everything about happiness and living life or whatever, that's on the side of the mainstream. In this society, it would appear that we can't escape this map that has been set up for us: going to school, finding a job, raising a family, retiring, dying. A vast majority of the people in our society is going to follow this general path, regardless of their perspective on life. It does not mean
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