My Year With Proust - Day 100

"We have seen already, moreover, that Swann had always an inclination (which he was now putting into practice merely in a more lasting fashion) to exchange his social position for another which, in certain circumstances, might suit him better.  It is only people incapable of dissecting what at first sight appears indivisible in their perception who believe that one's position is an integral part of one's person.  One and the same man, taken at successive points in his life, will be found to breathe, on different rungs of the social ladder, in atmospheres that do not of necessity become more and more refined; whenever, in any period of our existence, we form or re-form associations with a certain circle, and feel cherished and at east int it, we begin quite naturally to cling to it by putting down human roots."

Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove, p. 554

Here Proust is reflecting on the changing social status of Swann, and how he keeps climbing up the social ladder, and how in the end it is a pointless transformation - mainly because it is not a transformation at all.  I always tell my students that they should attempt to transform themselves, completely if possible, and if not completely then pretty substantially, every five years.  And I am a huge believer in this notion.  Hearkening back to Woody Allen in Anne Hall, "and I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."  It's true for relationships and I think it's true in a broader way for life itself.  That said, you should never base the transformation on social status; rather, it has to be internal and spiritual, which which eventually emanate outward.  If you base the change on social status then you're basing it on external factors, which means that you'll never be happy.  There are always bigger houses to mortgage and bigger cars to buy - and neighbors who always have more shit.  You live externally, and thus you have lost control of your own life.