You Get What Anyone Gets -You Get a Lifetime

I've never been big on philosophy.  Never had a head for it.  But I do find quite a bit of philosophical inspiration from more common sources: TV, movies, books, comics, etc.

People get angry at God when they don't get what they want.  It's like we're entitled to perfect, wealthy and happy lives and everything that gets in our way is clearly God deliberately spiting us.  "It's not fair!"  They whine.  "Why can't a get a break?  Why weren't we all born rich?"

Because that's not what life is about.  It's not about winning.  It's not about collecting the most stuff.  It's about making the best of what you've got.  "But Bill Gates has more to work with than me!"  Perhaps, although I'm confident Bill Gates has his own issues as well.  But what does Gates' success have to do with you?  Why are you making Bill Gates the measuring stick?

"You get what anyone gets - you get a lifetime." It's a quote from Death in the Sandman comic series.  Some are longer, some shorter.  It's not about getting the most.  It's about what you do with what you have.  It's about quality over quantity.

There are a few things we can do with that lifetime.  We can set reasonable goals and be happy as we achieve those goals.  We can set very high goals, work very hard, and risk not getting those goals.  Or, we can set unreasonable goals, probably not do much to attempt such goals (since we know they are out of reach), and then complain about a lack of results."

There are a lot of very poor people in the world, many many of them live happy lives.  They rejoice in friends and family.  They measure success in what they can accomplish locally in their community.  Which makes middle class Americans complaining about a lack of divine fairness sound all the more spoiled.  We're all dealt pros and cons.  It's up to us to make use of the pros to overcome the cons.

I was blessed to be born in one of the richest countries in the world to parents who, among other things, believed in sending their children through four years of college.  That was a blessing, not a right.  I got through grad school on my own.  I got a car on my own.  No one owed me those things.

I was also given a brain that doesn't properly interpret neurological signals, particularly those associated with pain.  It was debilitating enough to twice confine me to a wheelchair.  Marathon running is not a reasonable expectation for myself.  That's not a curse.  It's just a fact of life.  I can either bemoan that fact, or I can consider other options like martial arts and road biking and scuba diving, all things that I have done as an adult that once seemed impossible.

As Mchael J. Fox said several years ago: "I'm not crying 'what a tragedy', because it's not. It's a reality, a fact."