Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Things I Could Not Live Without.....

iPod
Cell phone
Camera
My "Dianky"
Chapstick
Laptop
Car
Sweet tea!
Toothbrush/paste

There are so many more! It's easy for me to say that I couldn't live without my listening device, or my link to the outside world, but notice I haven't listed anything that I truly could not live without: clean drinking water, food, roof over my head (not absolutely essential, but still). There are people all over the world who do without those essentials on a daily basis. If there is a question about where my next meal will come from, it isn't about how I am going to get it, it's about where do I want to get it. I don't scavenger trash cans and dumpsters for food and water or build a shack with cardboard boxes. I don't have to walk the streets day and night because I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be. I don't spend holidays alone because I don't have friends and family and it doesn't occur to me NOT to make a Christmas list. All of these things just are for me. I want them and there they are. Food is in the fridge, sweet tea is half price at Sonic between 2-4, and my iPod not being charged is a crisis. I have gas in my car and if I want to go somewhere, I go. This isn't a pedastal and I'm not preaching. I was just thinking about how much I love my stuff, and then it occurred to me that not only do majority of the people in this world not have these things, they have so much LESS. And the real kicker is, you don't have to go to a third-world country to see people in need. These people easily live in the house down the street, or sleep under the bridge on 15th St. So the next time I am complaining to myself that I would like a new Vera Bradley or a new outfit, perhaps I should just remind myself of the little girl sitting in class on Friday thinking about the food she won't get at home over the weekend.

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