A Double Shot of Perspective with a Side of Humble Pie

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.  I am a Gemini, so really this is not all that out of the ordinary, and I am fairly certain that a Gemini is permanently haunted by thinking about every single thing on their radar and at least 155 things that aren't.  I don't just feel guilty sometimes about things that I do and how it affects someone close to me, but I feel guilty about things that people close to me do that affects someone else close to me.  Thankfully I have a ridiculously big head so there is room for all this.

Just another way God planned ahead.

Anyway, I got to thinking about what drives our lives here in America.  It all started because I have been reading 5 books at once for a good couple of months now (I finished one of them a few weeks ago though).  Anyway, I bought a Kindle and subsequently had to buy another book.  I bought "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller.  I was reading this book and it was talking about commercials and how they affect us.  You know, buy the new dodge charger because this hot skinny chick likes it.  Things like that.

And this led me to think of other things that completely affect us.  For instance, we are so trained by media, TV, and fashion to believe that we have to be a size 2, when there are women in other countries who probably envy the fact that we have extra body fat when they don't even have enough nourishment to produce breastmilk and feed their crying babies.

(I used to not be the type to throw out the starving children in Africa bit, but I am making a point.)

What if we all looked at it a different way.  We all have the freedom and choice to be any size we want.  We are rarely limited by anything (in most cases), we have copious resources at our disposal to be size 2 or size 20 or any other number.  I am not saying that some people don't have health issues that restrict this, but you get the point.

What if we looked at everything in our life a different way?  Why is our vehicle not good enough? The one on tv has more chrome, more features, more hot chicks? Really? I have a Durango.  It is not fuel efficient, she is picky as the day is long, and quite frankly I lovingly call her the Diva.  She's got years and miles on her.  People trade vehicles when they get to 80k miles, but I fully plan on getting that Diva well over 200k (granted I am already at 160 and I am thinking that it could top 200 before I graduate from grad school).

Other people have no cars.  Plenty of people in THIS country have no car.  I get the opportunity to drive a Durango with Charcoal colored paint with little glittery bits in it.  I get to look at a few door dings and wonder how she got them.  I look at the 162,000+ miles and get to remember the trip to Niagra, the drive through Canada, the trips to Nashville (both TN and IN), and all the memories that those miles entail.  My rebellion against driving the Durango in the first place all the way up to my deep love of her now.

Sidenote.  I did not like the Durango because my mom brought it home on a 100 degree summer day and it had really freaking dark leather seats.  My first time sitting in it in short shorts, HURT.

But, with a double shot of perspective, I would now say, I got the opportunity to burn my legs on leather seats that some people may never get to experience.

We get to experience so many things that others may never get to experience. 

• Some people will never be anything other than starving
• Some people will never drive a car
• Some people will never have health care benefits, insurance, or a place to call their own
• Some people will never get to go to school, much less advanced schooling like college and graduate school

You get the point.  Life is tough, there is no denying that.  But some of it we bring on ourselves by refusing to be happy with what we are giving, or maybe just never taking the time to look around and appreciate what we have. 

Maybe the grass looks greener on the other side because we haven't looked at the patch we are standing on. 

I really don't know where the humble pie part of my title came in but it sounded so good at the time.