There is a great piece of advice that has been going around.
In the midst of a bad or even horrible day imagine the everyday lives of those less fortunate than you.
If you hate your job imagine what it's like not to have work at all.
If you feel frustrated about a leaky roof and a flooded basement image being homeless.
The co-pays of medicine are outrageous. Imagine not having any medicine. When a simple cut that goes untreated can cost you a finger or even a limb.
You have eating Raman Noodles every day. Imagine hunting rats in the garbage heap some people call home. Or a bowl of rice a day is a luxury.
You struggle to pay tuition. Some people will never have a chance at school, college or otherwise. A lack of education leads to a lack of ambition and no hope for a better life. to a lack of ambition and no hope for a better life.
The list goes on and on.
Great advice to be sure. But let me take this idea in an other direction.
You sit at home on SSI scraping whatever you can together to make ends meet. You hear a billionaire
complain about loosing a million dollars in the stock market.
You think to yourself how horrible it is for someone who has more than enough money to last a lifetime
worry about loosing what may seem like pocket change to a billionaire. That is a valid thought. But what might be going through the mind of that billionaire?
Lets say that billionaire only knows luxury. Lets say that he built his wealth from nothing. His business sense and hard work got him to where he is today.
His family may have lost everything in the great depression. Now in the current state of the economy this billionaire looses a million dollars and fears that he too could loose all that he has. He is afraid if such a thing were to occur he wouldn't know how to survive on business sense alone.
He might not posses the skills to go from rags to riches. His business acumen might not be enough this time. He lacks the street smarts to start at the bottom. He might have to learn a whole new set of skills just to get a job.
You work downtown. Everywhere you go you run into homeless people begging for change. It disgusts you. You tell them (sometimes out loud) to get a job.
You fail to get to know why this homeless person is in the state that he is. You may even have something in common. You are both alcoholics. The difference is that you can function with exceptional grace and skill on the job and this lowly man couldn't cut it as an alcoholic and a person with a good job.
Maybe people see you as being rich. Even if you do live week to week check to check. They dream of living in a house. A place that has a roof. A place that has heating and electric. You complain that you don't have nice clothes to go see the opera. But to that person outside your world having clean clothes would be amazing.
Celebrities cry. The rich feel empty. People in power constantly worry.
We're all in this together. Rich or poor. Hungry or full. Warm or cold.
Work together with all we have and maybe someday things will seem a bit more balanced. Maybe the world will be a better place.
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