Wednesday, August 21, 2013

On Solving #firstworldproblems...

Since my last post, I've been giving a lot of thought to my first world problems.

I'm ambivalent about the term because on one hand, what other kinds of problems do we first world dwellers have but first world ones? On the other hand, I get it. At its best, it smacks us back to perspective when we want to whine about things we know we shouldn't.

Because non-first world problems are truly staggering and humbling in comparison.

How to illustrate first world problems with a pic...
Well, it's kind of like having blue skies smiling at you
and thinking they're raining on you instead, I guess. :/

There are still many places in the world where most of the people don't even have the remotest opportunity to enjoy electricity, running water, septic systems, shoes on their feet, clothes on their backs, a roof that doesn't leak or a roof at all, one reliable meal a day, much less three, not for themselves and not for their children...

Just imagine for a moment how unkind we would think life if that became our reality.

And yet so many people in those places still manage to face life with gratitude and a smile, simply for the chance to live it.

Not that I don't think there are surly ingrates among them, though we like to romanticize that there aren't. But the knowledge that there are people who have it so much harder than I do, without any reasonable expectation that their situations will improve, who choose to see riches in their poverty and be grateful for them, should not be anything less than transformative.

As a woman who's been well fed, well clothed, well sheltered, well loved, well educated, well employed, and well situated throughout most of my life, with the choice and ability to change my situation if I desired to, I have hit the fucking Powerball.

In terms of having my material, spiritual and emotional needs met, I am no poorer than the wealthiest first world human - only the brands are different. Or maybe not.

While third world people struggle with infant mortality and starvation and diseases we don't even remember, I suffer from a first world kind of amnesia that frequently makes me forget the fullness and greatness of my blessings.

Realizing this doesn't mean that I'm going to shame myself out of the pleasures of first world living. To have won the jackpot and then to sit on it for guilt that others have not would be a waste of my good fortune.

But it does mean that I am going to make a conscious effort to be all the more grateful and joyful in all of my first world privileges and to realize in each moment of each day...

- From the first flush of the morning; to the hot water shower; to the first drip of coffee; to the garden I tend for pleasure and the free running clean water with which I feed it; to the happy, healthy albeit groggy faces of the husband, children and wiener dog who appear to me one by one, in their own time, after I've been awake for hours listening to music and indulging my love of words; to my never empty refrigerator; to the washer and dryer that keep our clothes clean and dry with the press of a button; to the TV on which I indulge my less than admirable viewing habits; to this laptop and the wi-fi that enable me to connect with so many people... to ALL OF IT -

...how incredibly blessed I am to be able to rely on just those things, never mind the rest, which is so much more.

And it also means that I am going to make greater efforts every day to share my blessings with others and earn some of this wealth I've inherited simply for being a child of the first world.

I think that might be a good first step toward solving my #firstworldproblems.

shinae

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