You Think You've Got Problems?

I am as I am sure you are, keenly aware of the magnitude of what Japan experienced.  I am also equally sure that when the images of what the quake did to Japan it reminded us of events like Haiti, Joplin, Katrina, the flooding in the Midwest and any number of other catastrophes visited upon us by mother nature.

On the other hand, with what we are confronted with on and off the Internet on a minute by minute basis, both natural and man-made, I also wonder if we have become so used to the carnage that we see going on that when things cut to commercial we then turn to our dinner companion and say something like "wow that's just awful isn't it?  What's for dessert?"

Throughout most of our lives we are reminded constantly of the fact that no matter how tough we feel our own indiviudal situations may be, there are always others who when we compare our own reality to thiers we blush with embarrasment that we were complaining at all.

I thought about this a good deal over this holiday weekend and reflected on how incredibly fortunate I am to have been born in this country, to have parents who could afford to give me the chance at an education, to have never even thought about where my next meal might come from, and to have only faced one real health issue in 70+ years.

I don't know about you, but I've been doing a lot of blushing lately.