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RE: Mini Motivation #5 - Have you been sulking lately?
Wow, are you me? We used to have one of those metal water troughs to take baths in. We'd also boil the water to take our bath! We'd bring the trough into the living room because the only heat we had was from the fireplace and stove, ha!! Growing up dirt poor was a trip, man.
It's a experience some may never be able to relate to, haha.
Yeah, sometimes when I see how entitled and unappreciative people are for what they have I take a moment and think about how my father grew up. No electricty or indoor plumbing. Having to work from the time that he was still a small child.
My attitude and what I take for granted must look, to him, just like what I think that I see in those people.
But, like you said, they can't relate to the experience of hand to mouth poverty. To them throwing away food or complaing that their job doesn't pay enough for the lifestyle they want is just relative to their experience, where food and work is always available.
So, I try not to judge. I know that I have the exact same flaws and that I'm just as oblivious to them as everyone else.
Hey, @kangarooninja. Thanks for sharing your day's tale.
I've read somewhere before that children that witness their parents' struggles will turn out to be more persistent too. I think that's the case for you. Keep it up!
Thanks for all the thought out responses. I don't want to take too much of your precious time, but I want to touch on what you just said about learning persistence.
My father has one of the worst cases of post polio syndrome in the world and (as far as we know) has used an iron lung longer than anyone who's ever lived (66 years). I spent my summers with him as a child and through to my years as a young man. I had to work very hard, sun up to sun down on our family farm.
The whole day, as I did my hard work, he would push himslef along in his wheelchair throughout the field with his one good leg. A very hard task for someone with 75% of their diaphragm having been atrophied. He would use he good leg and foot to grasp a water hose to painstaking water the garden and dozen or so fruit trees. He would pull weeds with his toes, slowly push chopped branches from felled trees and cleared brush. He worked harder than anyone I've ever seen, (And I worked as roughneck in the oilfield.)
His example is the one and only reason that I have the persistence and work ethic that I do today.
Sorry for the wall of text.