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You know with all the doom and gloom that has been in the news lately with our economy on the brink of complete failure and the big 3 automakers on the verge of collapsing I have been forced to ask myself if things are really that bad?
The answer I’ve come up with, surprisingly is: No, not really.
I mean think about it; most reading this had the opportunity on Thursday to join in and have a nice meal (some of us nicer than others) with our friends and/or family members. Meanwhile based on a UN report released in 2003 and reported by BBC News, about 25,000 people die each day from starvation and that was before the current food crisis.
Friday, some of us, if not most of us had the opportunity to go out and spend extravagantly on gifts for ourselves or others. Meanwhile according to the World Bank 2.8 billion people in the world live on less than two dollars a day. I highly doubt those 2.8 billion people had the same opportunity.
Today, Friday and Thursday we had the opportunity to wake up and experience another day. Meanwhile on Thursday/Friday at least 119 folks in Mumbai, India were killed by the brutal hands of commandos.
What is sad is that is just the events of the last 3 days or so. Can you imagine the terrible things that happen on a daily basis?
Yet we (myself largely included) are complaining that things are REALLY bad right now. While doing the research for this post I had to force myself to stop and think about all the times I have complained about the current state of the United States and the world as a whole and honestly I feel like quite the imbecile.
We’re so greedy, self-centered, and self-righteous that we often forget to put things into the big picture perspective that I am consistently talking about on here. I’m really bad at it. I know there are days where even though I love my job I’d rather not be working and the reality is almost ten percent of the United States isn’t working and the large majority of those folks are trying desperately to be working.
The big picture is this: While things certainly are not easy for most of us, at least right now but, they certainly could be a lot worse. So maybe, before we play ourselves the worlds smallest violin we should stop and consider that fact.
I know I am.
