Where is Waldo?

I remember as a youngster spending hours immersed in the series of books "Where is Waldo?" For those of you unfamiliar with the series, on each page of every book there was a new scene in which you attempted to find a man with a striped shirt, this man was Waldo. These books shaped my life in some ways, anytime I walk into a restaurant which has gone with the random everything on the wall (canoes, sports memorabilia, moose heads, etc. . .) I think this would be a good place for Waldo to hide. Whenever I see a person in red strips I think "hmmm ... there goes Waldo".
Looking back on my Waldo filled childhood it has made me ask a hard question: Why was I looking for Waldo? Waldo had nothing too special about him. He was a nerdy looking, middle aged white guy who wore sweaters and a toque at all times, even during safari scenes. I would not want to hang out with him, all he had going for him was that he got to see a lot of places. Perhaps Waldo is the cause of so many people in my generation placing their self-worth on where they have been not who they are. I'm off track, the original question: Why was I looking for Waldo?
I think the only answer I have come up with is that I was told to look for him. The whole series of books was named after him so I went along for the ride. The bigger question than becomes what else have I looked for or tried to find simply because I was told to do so and not out of an organic curiosity. In many classes over the years I have studied books worth of material that I did so simply because I was told to. Religions of all types seem to have that built in, look or do something because you are told to theology. Marketing is based on the idea that they can tell the consumer what to do and that they will do it because someone with nice bone structure tells them to.
I think I need to not worry about finding Waldo and just enjoy the looking. What I mean by that is we are told a number of things that we are suppose to look for and obtain and if we don't find whatever has been social ingrained in us that we are suppose to find, we are told that we can't turn a page and move on in the book of our lives. I say rubbish destinations are overrated the journey is where the joy comes in. Not limiting myself to one objective will allow me to find things I would have missed if my focus was to narrow. The new series of books I am now into is “Where is . . .” .