A person with a 42″ flat screen, 500 dvds, 2 home computers, and a cell phone is not a needy person.
A person who is living on the street, scrounging in garbage cans to survive might be a needy person.
A child, living in a hut, with no food for a hundred miles, is a needy person.
A person who is unemployed, with the rent due, with the utilities at risk of shut off, with a tow truck taking their car that’s 6 months behind away, may be a needy person. But if they haven’t looked for work, are still focusing on getting a “job I went to school for”, who won’t even consider shoveling **** to get that money they need….they aren’t needy. They are clueless. And they -CHOSE- to be that way.
If you live 80 years, and you don’t save a single buck towards that day you work your last, you just chose to live your last days in poverty and suffering. You can make all the excuses you want, “interest rates are nothing; I can’t spare the money now, etc. Bull ****. At $8 a pack the average 1/4 pack a day smoker pisses away $730 a year. That’s about $30,000 over 40 years that they CHOOSE to waste. They also choose to have bad breath, stink, and run high risk for emphysema, cancer and other wonderful long term fun.
Choice. You Choose your fate. You choose your life. You choose whether you exist, or you live.
But, call me an ass hole. That’s ok. Your choice.
The only person in this world who didn’t choose their fate is that child born with a defect. Their parents made that choice for them. However, that child can choose to be burdened by that, or choose to reach beyond it, in many cases (not all). The pothead who chose a high today and a dud brain tomorrow, that jaywalker who chose a short cut now and a lifetime of pain from being run over, heck even that person who chose to eat McD every day because it was cheap who chose high cholesterol, obesity and a shortened life span. All those are choices.
Or, are we simple at the whim of the Fates? Pawns in a global game we are powerless to control? Is it genetics that gives us fat people, and drunks, and cancer? Are you trapped in poverty because “the man be keeping you down”? Is it really impossible for someone born into a 1 room shamble to become a millionaire before they reach 30?
I feel sorry for those who feel that way, for they choose to be trapped by their view, rather than choosing to reach beyond and go as far as one can go.
I can sit here, see my bills pile up, see my income dwindle and become depressed, perhaps so depressed that I end up on one of those wonderful drugs. Truth is some people do need them, because of real issues. That wasn’t their choice, but they can choose to take the treatment and live, or reject it and exist. Most people however choose to be fenced in by their issues. Some choose not to be, choose not to let it get to them and choose to seek positive ways out of their holes.
Choice. Again. Sit in a mud puddle and complain you’re in a mud puddle, or get out of the mud puddle and look for a hose to wash off with. You might never find that hose true, but you never will if you don’t choose to look for it.
Choice. Again. You may be poor. You can choose to accept the help available, and survive, or not and crash hard. Another Choice, you can choose to live on that aid, or you can choose to use it as a temporary means and reach for greater things.
Choice. Again. You might be unemployed and see no jobs doing what you were last doing. You can choose to sit home and wait, or you can choose to widen your net, cast it farther and realize that you might have to take a few steps back before you can again move forward.
“**** Happens”, “It is what it is”, “well what can you do” are the cop out answers of people who choose to believe that they are not masters of their own fate, that their lives are out of their control.
I choose to see things differently.
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?86805-It-s-about-Choice
Actually, science has shown that there ARE people who are gentically predisposed toward weight problems and cancer. I’m sorry if that blows your black or white world.
Cancer is, by it’s very definition, a genetic disease. Cancer is caused by abnormal cells within the body. Cancer can be brought about by many outside factors, but you do or do not get cancer because you are either predisposed toward it or not.
Furthermore, cancer can be brought about be things well outside the control of the individual.
Ask the people who worked in offices insulated with Asbestos what they did to deserve the lung cancer they got.
Ask the child who’s parents smoked around him why he’s anemic, asthmatic, and possibly going to be diagnosed with lung cancer someday.
Ask the Veterans from the Vietnam Conflict why they stood out in the jungles and let the government dump Agent Orange and Purple on them. Tell them it’s thier fault they suffer from rashes, lymphoma, and children with different health maladies.
They didn’t have choices. They didn’t have the correct information to GIVE them choices.
This is not the first piece you’ve written about choices. I agree, there are too many people who choose to be lazy, stupid, broke. They don’t have to be, they have wasted potential. But just as saddening are the people who choose to look for quick overgeneralizations as to why someone isn’t being “successful”, at least by thier standards.
This calls to mind your articles regarding “The American Dream”. In the same tone, you stated YOUR version of the American Dream, and looked down upon those who don’t live it. The “You’re not trying hard enough..” arrogance is the same.
Life is full of choices. Today I chose to pause and speak up with an opposing view.
Thank you for the reply, Person who Chooses to be Anonymous.
Regarding weight, cancer and many other things. Yes, there are some things that are pre-selected for you. It is how you respond or react to those things that remains ever your choice. Other choices you make through out your life will determine IF certain things become more or less likely.
The employees chose that company.
Children however are limited in choice due to their place in our society, and some things are their parents choices not theirs. I yield that point.
The Vets chose to go to war.
Yes, you can say ‘insignificant or incorrect information’.
Yes the vet who refused to go might have ended up in prison.
My point isn’t that they made -bad- choices, but that they made -choices-.
I could choose to work a physical job, knowing that I will further injure and already damaged back. I need to eat now. I will deal with the potential crippling pain later, maybe by surgery, maybe by drugs, maybe by suicide, maybe my grinning and bearing it. I could choose not to take that job, choosing my long term back health over my more immediate need to eat. I might as a result end up homeless, starving on the street. But I made the choices that got me there.
Please understand that in most cases, it’s simply pointing out that you are where you are because of a series of choices you made, combined with interactions with others choices. It’s not pointing a finger and saying “You are wrong and I am right”. I apologize if that is how it is coming across.
As to going by my own standards, who elses should I go by? Mine are simple: Work hard, Work Smart, Do Something, and if it’s wrong, Do Something Else. No whining, no blame, just go do it. Or, to quote Larry Winget : Life’s Your Own Damn Fault.
But again, I thank you for choosing to reply, and choosing to do so in a polite non-hostile manner. I hope that you will choose to do so again in the future.
Namaste.