Be Thankful for What You Got
barjesus
872 Posts
I am.
I live comfortably, have plenty to eat and drink, clothes on my back, love of a good woman, friends, family, roof over my head. Seems pretty much like utopia to me. Is it wrong to enjoy these comforts when there is suffering in the world? I don???t think so. I have so little control over what???s going on in the world. One of the few things I have control over is my own perspective. When I look at my immediate surroundings, I???m in bliss.
Am I alone?
I live comfortably, have plenty to eat and drink, clothes on my back, love of a good woman, friends, family, roof over my head. Seems pretty much like utopia to me. Is it wrong to enjoy these comforts when there is suffering in the world? I don???t think so. I have so little control over what???s going on in the world. One of the few things I have control over is my own perspective. When I look at my immediate surroundings, I???m in bliss.
Am I alone?
Comments
Some people have it do hard now, though, (as always) so I'm not begrudging them their sense of hardship.
And some people are always complaining no matter what, and I have little sympathy for them.
and just bought a soulstrut shirt...life is good!
i try to remain as frugal as possible though....15yrs ago i was eating at the foodbank son...so i know the deals
are you unemployed? Or just doom and gloom selling? I was unemployed for the last 2 years. During that time I was extremely grateful for what I did have.
All but the very poorest people in the U.S. live substantially better than most people in the world.
Every night when I go to sleep, in a sheltered environment with no imminent threat to my well-being, I'm grateful.
MARCO ISLAND, Fla. (AP)???Don???t buy that car. Shorten that vacation. Eat at home.
Whatever they do, NFL players have been warned for years about the need to save and the importance of budgeting their money in case of a work stoppage.
Well, the lockout is here.
???We???ve been hammering the point home for two years that you have to be careful and you have to be prepared,??? Browns linebacker Scott Fujita(notes) said. ???Guys I know have made concessions.
AdChoices
???There are always a few guys you have to be concerned about, that you think might not have taken the right steps. It???s a part of the education process. Maybe you have to spoon-feed them on filling out direct deposit slips or coaching them on a change of lifestyle.???
The lifestyle for pro football players, particularly the veterans, is a good one. Seahawks guard Chester Pitts(notes), a nine-year veteran, calls it ???very comfortable.???
But Pitts notes it also needs to have limitations, more so when the players have no money coming in from the owners because of the labor stalemate.
???The guys in the locker room call me the cheapest guy around,??? Pitts said with a laugh, ???but you have to be wise with your money. You can live a great life and still be careful and still be smart.
???I tell guys, `Why do you need that $250,000 car? A Mercedes is a great car and it???s $85,000. You can afford that on your salary, and what???s that ($250,000) car going to do for you???? ???
Willie Colon(notes) didn???t need that advice; he already had decided to stay out of the automotive market this offseason.
The Steelers tackle, who missed the 2010 season with a torn right Achilles??? tendon, had thoughts of purchasing a new car for himself and one for his brother.
Won???t happen.
???I wanted to buy a car for my brother because his car is beat up,??? said Colon, who earned $2.198 million last year. ???But I told him this is not the year to make a lot of moves, especially with me being a (restricted) free agent and the lockout.???
Colon, who is single, also said he is eating out less and being responsible with his money, something he admits wasn???t always the case.
???When I was coming into the league as a rookie and I was able to get a signing bonus, I was somewhat dumb in spending it,??? he said. ???You know, you are a kid right out of Hofstra and you come into some money. But now, my adviser will always be in my ear. They educate you on how much is important to spend and what is important not to spend it on.
???If you are wining and dining every night, try and cut back, go to the grocery store and then stay home and cook. Your lifestyle doesn???t have to take a complete 180, but you need to be concerned because you never know when this lockout will end.???
Panthers receiver Steve Smith sees the lockout as an opportunity for the players to learn fiscal responsibility, regardless of how much they make.
???It???s not about, ???Well, I???m locked out, so now I need to save,?????? said Smith, who is scheduled to make about $7 million in 2010. ???It???s really giving guys an opportunity to evaluate themselves and say, ???You???re supposed to save anyway.??? It???s just an added incentive to make guys look at their financial habits and correct them and change them. I started doing that two years ago.???
Fujita and Pitts are extremely involved in the NFLPA, which is holding its meetings here; Fujita as an executive board member and Pitts as a player rep. But there are hundreds who don???t have such active roles. That rank-and-file is the segment the association???s leaders must reach about their finances.
Patriots tackle Matt Light(notes) is certain they have been reached. He cites not only the togetherness of the players in New England, but of all his peers in dealing with falling on difficult financial times.
???I would be shocked if that happens to any of our guys,??? Light said.
But, says Pitts, it wouldn???t be all that stunning for the younger players to either have not gotten the message or ignored it. That has made communicating with them so critical.
???If you???re not taught how to do something, the chances you are just going to learn it without help are not very good,??? he said. ???If a kid hasn???t been taught how to (ride a bicycle), he???s probably never going to do it. He???s probably not going to learn on his own.???
Pitts knows of players who aren???t living as large as they once did, including several who told him their postseason vacations were cut in half or even shelved.
All the players have taken a bit of a financial hit already because of the lockout: NFL teams no longer are paying for their health insurance. Fujita paid $1,900 this month for coverage for his wife and two children. For bigger families, the price is around $2,400 a month.
Yes, Fujita signed a three-year, $14 million free agent contract with Cleveland a year ago, with $8 million guaranteed. He???s also played nine seasons, and the league average is about one-third of that.
???We may make a lot of money, but it is for a very short time,??? said Chiefs linebacker Mike Vrabel(notes), one of 10 players whose names are on an antritrust action against the NFL in a U.S. District Court to stop the lockout. ??? I have been lucky to be in this game for 14 years, to think about that is crazy.
???The average guy plays 3.4 years, and you have got to make that work.???
The 1,900 or so players in the league now must plan to make the numbers work despite potentially not receiving paychecks in 2011; normally, they get paid in each of the 17 weeks of the schedule.
???My financial adviser has told me to put a little more away and to budget here and there a bit more, and I have,??? Colon said. ???You don???t want to have to find another job because you were not careful with your money and now the money isn???t coming.???
AP Pro Football Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this story.
If you have it good, give thanks, but if not, a positive attitude will help get you through it.
Just a random link with no message or meaning implied?
Cool.
That's just what they want you to think. All those other countries are fighting each other for food you should be glad to slave away for corporations you should be so lucky.
less than 2% of people control 98% or the wealth (and that number is getting worse not better), 1/2 of that is owned by just 400 families. Corporations keep merging into large and larger monopolies with out any regulation. They jack prices while lowering service quality along with benefits for workers as well as massive layoffs which force those left to work even harder. The Rich hoard OUR money and now we are slashing public programs and teachers salaries to compensate.
we are at war in 3 different countries with thousands of young men and women dying or coming back emotionally and physically scared for life. wars that were unjustified and unnecessary. we are also killing inocent people in at least 1 other country with drones making people hate us even more
banks ran off with billions and are still screwing the economy and taking peoples homes. most of whom can't pay their mortgage because they lost their job due to a recession caused by the bank taking their home
our great hope for president has fallen in line with the corporate oligarchy that has controlled the country for quite some time now
more oil is washing up in the gulf, Japan is about to start glowing, cancer is on the rise and no one will even admit it's from all the chemicals we soak the planet with
I have a good job, I make lost of money, my wife is hot and we have lost of sex, my kids are great and I have a beautiful grand baby, I take lots of vacations and I live in an expensive house in the mountains where I am outside doing fun activities all the time
BUT....I am not naive enough to think that things aren't bad. Society is a shit hole, you just have to make the best of it.
that's how we do in Detroit
My point, I guess, is that society isn???t a shit hole, despite what people keep telling me ALL THE TIME. Often it???s people like you (no offense), that are living better that almost everyone else in the world, that are encouraging others to feel that the world is a horrible cesspool beyond repair. Look at that laundry list. Sure, I might die of cancer, I might never even own a house to lose, but life is still beautiful, people are friendly and helpful everywhere. And life is worth living. That may be naive.
I have 2 different types of cancer AND no insurance, yet I get up every morning thankful that I'm not dj_cityboy
it's the simple things in life y'know?
Jesus, some people will collect anything.
Indeed
I totally agree, I just find it ironic that often the people complaining have nothing to complain about, and those that do have things to complain about often don???t.
Things just aren't as bad as everyone keeps making them out to be is not really a sentiment I can get behind. Yea, actually, things are pretty fucking terrible for a lot of people...so it's good to be thankful and grateful for what one has and then see what they can do to share what good fortune they may have.
I don't mind when people talk about how shitty things are - for themselves or for others - it's important for people to get things off their chest. But if it never comes with possible solutions or what they are doing to make it better, I got to move on.
sumthin against me or what?
If I've told this before I apologize...
When my youngest daughter Jessie was 5 she wanted to go to a Chinese Restaurant that was one of these "All You Can Eat" Buffet joints (I hate them). She didn't even come close to finishing what was on her plate and my wife and I decided that was the last time we'd go there.
About 6 months later Jessie and I were spending the day together and she begged me to go back to the same restaurant. Against my better judgement I told here "OK, but you have to eat everything you put on your plate so be very careful when you choose your food". She agreed and we went....of course she didn't like some of the items she picked and didn't empty her plate...... I said to her. "Do you know what your Grandmother would have said to me if I had done this when I was your age...."That's a sin because there are children starving in China".
Without any hesitation she looked at me and said "Then why did they bring the food here"??
I have everything I need.