Opinion – Taking Things For Granted

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We have supermarkets that have prepared food that we need only heat up. It wasn’t till I had an experience with someone from another country at a grocery store that I realized how easy everything became for us.

Charity isn’t a seasonal thing. Although it may seem like it is. During the winter months we hear more about the importance of giving. Living in the northeast we sympathize with the fear of being too cold and not being able to find shelter. Or have a warm coat & warm clothing to get us through the winter. With the holidays we’re reminded by bell ringers that when we’re out shopping that others are out there hoping and praying for help.

It’s a humbling experience to face the bleak realities of others who struggle day to day. Some of us have grown bitter from past experiences of helping someone who returned that kindness into a joke. So to those of us who have experienced that type of betrayal in trust and faith, we see everyone else who is asking for help as that one person who burned you. That is just not the case.

Sympathy is becoming a rare quality in society. Instead of helping the poor we rationalize the reasons we feel they put themselves in that situation. Most of the time they are faceless to us. We dehumanize them. Charities around the world spend millions to give them faces. To make us empathize. Money that is better spent on their causes are spent to make us aware, to feel something. Because they know that funds dry up quickly if they can’t get a knitch into society, a place in our consciences, without it they will cease to exist.

Most of us live in excess and some of us know that we do. We take these daily conveniences as not a luxury but as necessity. Such as a washer & dryer, microwave. Even A/C in the summer.

A cellphone to many is not something they need but rather want. Much less the type of cellphone.

We have supermarkets that have prepared food that we need only heat up. It wasn’t till I had an experience with someone from another country at a grocery store that I realized how easy everything became for us. She just wanted oats to make breakfast in the morning. I showed her the Quaker oatmeal packets and she was just astonished! Then she wanted bread and meats. I showed her sliced loafs and packaged chicken. This was all new to her. A luxury.

Where she is from they have a corner market and you buy meat to prepare within the next day or two and nothing comes prepacked. She pretty much “lost it” when I showed her the freezer section!

I remember going home and looking through my cabinets and fridge. Despite being a mother who knows how to cook well, I’ve certainly made it easier on myself and how I fed my family with the products I buy. Most people do. So I started to be more conscious of my shopping and that lead to me being more conscious of how I take things for granted.

We live in an area, a country, that sells food items that last a very long time. Despite your feelings towards that we know that there are people who have nothing. If we choose to eat fresh that shouldn’t stop us from picking up a non-perishable item each trip (especially if it’s on sale) and putting it aside for a shelter. Year round. Being cocky about how we’ve lived our lives whether its been an easy journey or a difficult one, should not impact our ability to help others.

For every blessing I have, I try to give. For every luxury I’ve taken for granted. We can not find an inner peace unless we become humble. As we live day to day, season to season so does everyone else the world. A very many people are just getting by and instead of judging them by forcing them to live in their own harsh existence why not find peace in yourself and give something? Starting now we can make things a little better in the world we’re giving to our next generation. Every season, everyday. Live for someone other than yourselves.


About Jordis Brown

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