It is six o ‘clock in the morning. I’ve just eaten my complimentary “hot” hotel breakfast… Eggs, bread, sausage patty, and something that I thought was potatoes but upon taste bud examination turns out to be a poor excuse for French toast. It was…. Food. And that’s about it.
As I ate my eggs I tried to tell myself that it was tasty, and that if it didn’t taste as good as expected, then I probably was not very hungry. And there is some truth to that, for people in Africa would probably love to have the breakfast of this morning. For they have instead, nothing but swollen and extended abdomens from very real and painful starvation.
When I was a little girl I always wanted to be my daddy’s little princess. My best friend’s father always called her that but to my dad, I was not his princess. I’d think to myself back then, “Geeze, what must it be like to be a princess?” This morning I know.
A princess is one who has everything at her fingertips… nourishment, clothing, a hot bath, a roof over her head, transportation at any given moment with a choice to walk or to ride in it… And, she can turn her nose up at perfectly healthy food when it has been prepared for her.
I have all those things mentioned above, therefore I have concluded that I have been a princess all of my life without even knowing it. Plus, I have many sister princesses because I (and they) live in the most affluent country in the world. Maybe some of my fellow princesses don’t have a car, but public transportation is available and the opportunity to work and have one’s own transportation is real.
Today on the Internet, I read many thoughts from many people about how terrible our country is being run and how our government needs to get a clue and see how the rest of us are suffering. Well, certainly our lives are being affected by the changes in our economy etc. But if we really think about it, we have opportunity to change what we don’t like whereas so many others across the globe do not. And here’s a thought for us all… What if we spent more time working for a change instead of mouthing off about how pathetic our lives are… Every Ethiopian in the world would laugh at our complaints.
I have no control over the other princesses of America, just me. I can only control my own morals and ethics. I choose to give of my wealth, however meager it may be, instead of complain. I choose to (when complaints burst forth from these lips of mine) to alter my course, and do something helpful for someone else. Maybe it won’t be earth shaking, this deed that I do, but it will be giving of myself instead of wallowing in my woes.
Helping others gives health to self. Oh true, some people won’t appreciate what you did or thank you… They may just take from you and walk on, as if you and your effort are invisible. But to give of self, even to some poor bastard, still feels better than to bitch and moan about what everyone else has that I don’t possess. I may only help that selfish person once, and then move on; but I will have shown that person there is another way to live which just might be better than his (or her) way. Oh, you think that’s foolish… The good health in my heart is laughing.
Yes, the breakfast this morning was less than I wanted to eat. But I’m fed and that’s a good thing. If it wasn’t enough, perhaps it’s time to feed my soul with concern for others through thought, word, prayer, and action.
May you also find a little good food both for mind and for body.
Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple
