Entitled

13 Replies

Do you feel entitled?

” . . .believing oneself to be inherently deserving

of privileges or special treatment.”

There are so many things that we have that we take for granted but do we deserve them? Short answer yes and no. There are things written in law that if we attain ‘ this’ we are entitled to ‘that’. That’s a good thing for a community, a society. But there are those who believe that they are entitled to more simply because they are alive. And that is both sad and annoying.

There will always be those who believe they deserve more than anyone else. There will always be those who don’t take what they deserve simply because they don’t want to be greedy. I think most of us are in between those two. But what are we entitled to?

It would be easy to say fresh air and clean water but even those come with a cost. There are people in this world that don’t have access to either. Don’t they deserve as much as we do? They do, but in this day and age we have to work to attain fresh air and clean water and then maintain them. And sometimes we don’t work hard enough. Or we do and others sabotage our efforts for reasons of ignorance and greed.

By virtue of my birth I am lucky enough to live in a country that believes I am entitled to assistance because I have a disability. I appreciate that, every day. Unfortunately there are those who think they too should be ‘entitled’ because . . . because . . . they’re lazy and greedy! There are so many abuses of the system that it is in danger of collapsing. I don’t think it ever will but it is strained. And there are those who deserve the help and are finding it difficult to get.

There are more than 7 billion people in the world and each one is an individual. I have beliefs and customs that are mine and I have no right to enforce them on another. Nor do they have the right to enforce their beliefs on me. Even if we disagree. I am a big Star Trek fan and one of the most sacred tenets in the series is ‘The Prime Directive’. I think we should all take note of it:

The Prime Directive is a guiding principle

prohibiting one group from interfering with the internal development of others.

This conceptual law prohibits using superior technology

to impose their own values or ideals on others.

 

I think we need to listen.

 

 

Currency

6 Replies

A penny for your thoughts,

A dollar for mine,

Ten bucks to listen,

Sleeping is fine.

I’ll rant and I’ll rave

Off the top of my head,

If you pay me in bitcoin

It may leave you dead.

It’s dollars I crave,

Like a fin or some dough.

I’m not talking pastries

It’s money you know!

How sad that our world

Now turns on a buck.

If beauty’s forgotten

We’re all out of luck.

Times they are changing,

Not always for good.

I still hope for the best

If only we could . . .

  Seasonal Changes

15 Replies

                         Sorry everyone, it has been a busy week and the post I had planned is not quite ready.  I hope this little story will amuse you in the mean time.

Lea looked around her and smiled. Life was good. She felt as if she was on top of the world. Which in fact, was not too far from the truth. She was high enough to look down on the teeming masses and feel superior.

A gentle breeze moved around her and she shivered in delight. With the sun on her face and the faintest wafts of air to keep the bugs at bay there was no other place Lea would have preferred to be. Here she could while away the days in thought and feeling. The whole experience was a hedonistic surplus of sensation.

It is dangerous to spend all of one’s time in the near sighted pursuit of just one ideal. With the passage of time comes change.

Lea woke one morning to a strange feeling of fear. She really didn’t understand the sensation but she was sure she didn’t like it. Carefully she glanced around her. Everything seemed unchanged. The people she could see were scurrying about their daily lives. The sun was in the sky, the wind was quiet but still there. It had rained over the last few days but that was not unusual and it even made the world seem a little crisper, more alive. But something was different.

Lea didn’t live in her little aerie alone, she had neighbours. When she finally deigned to actually acknowledge them, she discovered that they had changed. Perhaps they had spent too much time in the sun because they were definitely a different colour. Not an unpleasant shade of red but it did depend on your tastes. Once again Lea felt superior. She wasn’t going to change, not her.

There are few inevitabilities in life, death and taxes not withstanding. The passage of time can never be halted no matter how much we may want it and with that passage also comes change. We can rail against it all we want but change happens.

It had been a few weeks since Lea had first noticed the changes in her neighbours and she was horrified to see that they seemed to have accepted it. It must be because they were old, past their prime. Not like her. Although, in the last few weeks she had been feeling a little tired, not her usual perky self. It must be the weather. The wind was blowing a little harder and the sun wasn’t nearly as warm as it had been. Lea was sure that it would all pass and that one day soon everything would be back to normal. It had to, she wouldn’t accept anything else.

The next day Lea woke feeling cold and sore. She looked to her neighbours and saw that they were gone. She made the effort to look around her and noticed that all of her neighbours had gone. She was alone. The people below were fewer and those she could see were not enjoying the day like they used to, they seemed to be in a hurry. It is hard to feel sanctimonious when you are alone.

A few days later Lea did not wake up. The wind was blowing hard and crisp. The sun seemed lower in the sky, almost as if it too was finding it difficult to rise in the morning. The warm days of summer had come to an end and the cool winds of change had brought the autumn. With her many neighbours Lea now formed a blanket of leaves beneath her cherished trees. The seasons changed once more.

 

-End-