The choice to live a hard life vs. an easy life is a luxury I failed to acknowledge in my response to my wife’s statement about waiting for the easy life. There is a much larger percentage of society who live a hard life by default. We all know this, but many (myself included) often fail to account for this population as we pontificate our 1st world problems.
While I do subscribe to the pull yourself up by the bootstrap way of thinking, I’m not naive to the fact that you first need bootstraps before you can pull yourself up by them. Unlike many in my community, I was fortunate enough to start life ahead of the game.
I am a third generation college graduate on my mom’s side and a second generation college graduate on my dad’s side. Both my father and mother poured everything they had into me to help me grow into a productive member of society. My wife also has a similar story.
This upbringing sometimes clouds my view of the world. I sometimes catch myself criticizing those who struggle in life . I criticize because I judge them based on what I perceive as bad decision making. I criticize because I perceive them as lazy. I criticize because I think they can change their circumstances by simply working harder.
Yet and still, I cannot let myself fall into this trap. The trap of thinking that I’m better than others because of the sacrifices of my parents and grandparents. I have no idea how I would respond to the adversity of being born into a hard life. I never had a silver spoon by any means, but I sure didn’t have a wooden one either. I have no right to judge anyone’s struggle.