[ This is the November post ]
I was browsing news articles in a japan online newspaper. Most of the articles contained stories of the effects of economic problems faced by the nation. Some of these stories zeroed in on practical real life examples.
There was one article that caught my attention.. it was a theory that by Japan's standards, if your annual net income was below 900,000 pesos (converted amount from Yen equivalent), you are poor.
I was dumbfounded.
By world's standards, I AM POOR. Not just borderline poor. VERY POOR actually. =)
Then the article continued on by stating some examples of people whose lifestyle is considered below the poverty line. I don't want to expound on the details of the lifestyle itself, as this is the person's bias/opinion on it.
What I wanted to ponder on - is the reaction of a reader below the article. In a nutshell, this person was stressing two things. The first is that it's not the person's fault if he/she is poor. Whoever was claiming that life provides equal opportunities to everyone should really see a doctor.
The second point being emphasized by the reader, was that life is all about haves and have-nots. This was really mortifying to hear, but made a lot of sense. After all, what could you do if you were born from a poor family?
You couldn't possibly have the same opportunities of someone who was born and raised in a wealthy one.
And only after realizing this and applying this theory to your situation will you be able to pick better options based on what you have and what you don't have.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
It can't always be the same
[ October entry ]
Imagine your life every morning when you're on your way to work.
LET'S SAY.. you have a habit of stopping by for coffee at your favorite coffee shop. This coffee shop's product is very good and manages to make you happy almost every single time you drop by.
Then.. after years of going there, your friend visits you coming from some far away place and where's the first place you take him/her? In a coffee shop that you don't frequently visit. If ever this happened to you - this isn't anything new. While there are many possible reasons that cause this to happen -- I will point out only one for this post. Particularly, the idea of inevitable change.
When I take an even closer look as to why you decide to change one day in what you want/like to do, I feel that it's mostly because we are serving our conscience with respect to discontentment. Yeah yeah I know. There are hopeful souls who believe in contentment. I myself want to believe this too. Perhaps contentment exist, but not in its purest form. I mean - there will always be something that we'll want to change, or something we'll want become restless with. And there will always be a part of us that will always stay the same.
But for the most part of our life, we simply have to accept the fact that not everything we have around us will stay the same. I suddenly remember what happened this year in terms of routine. This year was quite an odd year. The same people who I've been seeing every year? This time around it was total opposite. I never got to see them at all. And as I would like to protest to myself at my neglect of initiative, I have come to accept the fact that maybe.. just maybe.. I grew tired of how I was conducting myself among my friends and so I decided to go totally rouge this year and if
I compared this year with the past years in terms of social interaction - it's really totally happier but not necessary better. Mostly happier because I paid more attention to the inner voice telling me what I wanted to happen and went on with it, compared to doing a lot of things out of habitual obligation.
Imagine your life every morning when you're on your way to work.
LET'S SAY.. you have a habit of stopping by for coffee at your favorite coffee shop. This coffee shop's product is very good and manages to make you happy almost every single time you drop by.
Then.. after years of going there, your friend visits you coming from some far away place and where's the first place you take him/her? In a coffee shop that you don't frequently visit. If ever this happened to you - this isn't anything new. While there are many possible reasons that cause this to happen -- I will point out only one for this post. Particularly, the idea of inevitable change.
When I take an even closer look as to why you decide to change one day in what you want/like to do, I feel that it's mostly because we are serving our conscience with respect to discontentment. Yeah yeah I know. There are hopeful souls who believe in contentment. I myself want to believe this too. Perhaps contentment exist, but not in its purest form. I mean - there will always be something that we'll want to change, or something we'll want become restless with. And there will always be a part of us that will always stay the same.
But for the most part of our life, we simply have to accept the fact that not everything we have around us will stay the same. I suddenly remember what happened this year in terms of routine. This year was quite an odd year. The same people who I've been seeing every year? This time around it was total opposite. I never got to see them at all. And as I would like to protest to myself at my neglect of initiative, I have come to accept the fact that maybe.. just maybe.. I grew tired of how I was conducting myself among my friends and so I decided to go totally rouge this year and if
I compared this year with the past years in terms of social interaction - it's really totally happier but not necessary better. Mostly happier because I paid more attention to the inner voice telling me what I wanted to happen and went on with it, compared to doing a lot of things out of habitual obligation.
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