I have been fortunate to not yet have to deal with any massive emergency relating to housing, finances or health, unlike the people of Haiti.
When one is uprooted with barely anything reasonable for basic survival, nothing else is really that important anymore.
It does put things in perspective, doesn't it? I remember going through some difficult things at work in the late 90's and found myself grumbling about it a lot. Then one night I watched a lot of footage of all the refugees streaming out of the Balkans at the time - leaving with no money, no shelter, no possessions, and wondering whether relatives were dead and how they themselves would survive.
ReplyDeleteI felt like a spoiled child complaining that my dessert portion was smaller than usual. We often don't realize just how good we have it...
You are absolutely right S.B. It is so easy to forget where we are in the big, big scheme of things in our quest for betterment. Most of the time, I find myself splitting hairs.
ReplyDeleteWhen our biggest issues are with comfort, travel, higher education, retirement related etc. it is hard to remember what it was like when basic food & clothing was the most important thing.