Why is Don hiding his past? For starters, his birth mother was prostitute who died giving birth to him and his biological father didn't want much to do this him as he was growing up. His father and stepmother regularly abused him and he was eager to join the Army during the Korean war. After combat fatigue set in, Richard (Don) had an opportunity to place his dog tags on a dead soldier (the real Don Draper) and return home with a new identity. Arriving back in the states, be began work as a used car salesman when he was tracked down by Anna Draper, the real Draper's widow. He subsequently felt an obligation to her and wanted this woman to keep his secret. As his income rose, he purchased her a home and took care of her throughout her life.
Don's business contacts took off and over the years concealing his identity mad business sense. You see, he was a high school drop out, son of a prostitute and a US Army deserter by taking the new name. As a highly paid business executive in the advertising firm Sterling Cooper, he married and lived the happy materialistic life of the 60s.
Keeping that secret about the past was only half of it though, Don Draper is also a womanizer. In fact, nearly every woman he meets gets an invite to a hotel. He has one golden rule though, that he doesn't "bed" his women colleagues, especially his mentee Peggy Olsen. Nevertheless, each episode of the TV is fascinating. On the one hand you really care about Don, he is obviously hurt and acting out with his promiscuity, and on the other had you see the deep pain he inflicts on his wife and children by living a lie.
Indeed, the fictional "Don Draper," lives an absolutely depressing life. Constantly trying to bury his guilt in alcohol, sex, money and influence, he very seldom opens up to anyone. One minute he is in bed with a strange woman and the next minute he walks into the living room and cuddles his children in front of the TV set sipping on a martini. He is a master at changing roles. His only gift is deceiving or telling people what they "want" rather than what they "need" as an advertising guru. No one really knows much about him, he doesn't talk up the past. He is ashamed of it and if any of his clients found out about his identity the firm could lose business.
This "covert" Don Draper is a lot like many people. Attractive on the outside, cunning, and even admirable in a business sense. But on the inside, conniving. Maybe we don't open up to everyone and we try to live like someone else. It is really hard to reveal everything about our past when we have something we are ashamed of. We would like to "bury" that terrible thing and leave it behind on the Korean war front or at least wrap a dog tag around our neck of someone more successful, more educated or more charismatic than we are. We couldn't get a role on the TV show, but nevertheless we truly live the life of "Mad Men" in the way we hide part of ourselves from others.
There is one person though who might make us "come clean." He was there when we were hurt. He was a witness to all those times of pain in our lives. He didn't stand idly by, but knew something had to be done about all the evil we experienced and all the evil WE perpetuate (just like you were hurt from someone in your past, you deliver pain to someone in the present). It is an endless cycle. Maybe you are angry God never did anything right when it happened to you in the past, you don't think God can do anything now. God can't exist because he didn't do anything to stop the hurt you felt and anyone who believes in God, this God who didn't do anything when you were hurt, is like a child believing in Santa Claus. God is a fantasy, a big fat elf on a sleigh.
What are we to do? Live our lives in despair? Hate God or deny that he exists? We think we are happy, just like Don, or do we go on living as "Mad Men" in our daily lives?
The bible says that we can become a new person if we acknowledge our creator and confess our wrongdoings. In fact, in so doing we can be healed from all the hurt in the past.
You see, Jesus of Nazareth, a son of a carpenter and the born into the least influential family in ancient Palestine was God incarnate in the flesh. He had no formal education and wore homespun. He had no debate instruction, but argued with the most influential men of his time. He was God intervening in the history of man. He intervened in the past, and he can intervene in the present if you want him to do so.
Matt 4:23 says ... And Jesus went round the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every bodily weakness among the people.
Before you close the book on Don Draper and slap the bible shut as a text full of fairy tales, try and take a few minutes to explore who this man "Jesus" really was and is. Leave all the baggage and preconceptions you have about religion or church steeples, get to know the historical person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the scriptures. Start with the gospel of John, it is easy to read. I would love to hear from you!
