Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Been a while since I was up early enough to start writing the Sunday post in the dark, but here we are. 6:24AM and dark out. Yes, our tree is still up. This week I’ve been thinking about how life isn’t, and never will be, fair. There will always be people who have terrible things to face that most of us never will have. Whether it’s through an accident, a twist of fate, a scam – whatever – sometimes it happens. And there will be plenty of “he didn’t deserve that promotion” type of moments as well. And similar things to that, like money falling into their lap, etc… Many people look at what is perceived as the inequity regarding money and salaries as unfair. Sports figures making multiple millions a year, teachers under $100k for example. Or, why do some people have billions while so many are homeless? It isn’t fair. It never will be fair. Fairness is in the eye of the beholder, too, making it subjective. It’s easy to scoff at an NFL quarterback holding out for $55 million a year rather than take the $50 million deal offered, for example. From our vantage point, it seems greedy. Just take the $50 million!… but to the people involved in the negotiations, they’re just trying to get what they see as “fair” compensation based on what other people in their field are making. How do we resolve this fairness inequity within ourselves, then? It can be really hard not to be bitter if we’re personally dealing with something in our lives that seems inherintly unfair. Why did this have to happen to me, or my loved one? Why was I born with this disability? How could I fall for that scam?… and the more bitter we become, the more anger we have towards the people who seem to always be in the right place at the right time and move forward getting all the breaks. Not fair at all. All we can do, really, is to be honest and fair within ourselves, then. Whatever handicaps we have are only really handicaps if we see them as such. Life is littered with stories of people who overcame insurmountabe odds by not focusing on what they couldn’t do, or how unfair it was, but by instead focusing on what they could do. Helen Keller and Stephen Hawking come to mind for me, I guess. We all have gifts and we all have limitations. We can all find people in our lives who we might think don’t deserve what they have, or the burden they’ve been cast to bear. All we can really do, though, is make sure as much as possible that when we deal with others, we do so in a fair and equitable manner. And if we see something that doesn’t seem fair, and we’re in a position to help – then help. We can fight for things we believe in as well, if we think a change needs to be made. Women’s rights, civil rights, etc… wouldn’t be where they are today without people fighting for change. But life will never get to 100% fair all the time. That isn’t how it works. We will never be perfect, and life will never be fair. You can take that as motivation to lie, cheat, scam and steal your way through life trying to get as much as you can with as little work as possible, or you can be a beacon of light and hope. We all love dealing with people who err on the side of fairness, right? When we call for a refund, and they handle it quickly and efficiently and tell us to just keep the product, too? Who doesn’t like that? It’s a loss for them, that doesn’t seem fair. Or is it? Fairness is in the eye of the beholder. Be honest and fair in your dealings and don’t worry about what you can’t control.
