Perspective

I read an interesting article on Foxnews today. The article was a comparison of the value of the US dollar to other foreign currencies, in fact, not just any other foreign currencies, but the 10 worst currencies in the world. By worst, I mean that these other monetary units have the lowest value in the world. Now this comparison was intended to sort of assuage America's self pity during this difficult financial time, but with me, it had quite the opposite effect. You see, Zimbabwe is the poorest country in the world. One single American dollar is worth 642,371,437,695,221,000 Zimbabwean dollars.

Don't believe me? Read it for yourselves... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453526,00.html

After reading that and having to sit there and use my finger to count the commas separating all those numbers so I could figure out how to verbally say that huge number aloud, I was stunned. I mean really, I could not, and really still cannot, wrap my mind around what it must be like in Zimbabwe. I mean, here I sit in my cozy queen size bed complete with feather bed, super soft blanket, down comforter, and let's not forget the 600 thread count sheets; yet, a plane ride away, people can't even afford an egg. Read the article! It's astounding.

This afternoon I received a text message from a friend asking if I had a good day. I gave an immediate response saying that my day wasn't bad at all. Then I started thinking about my day, really thinking about it. You want to know the worst part of my day? My i-pod broke. Right, my 80G i-pod that currently has 5000 songs a few seasons of some TV shows, and a few podcasts is now kaput. Wow. That's it. Well, that, and I burned my hand on a flat iron. I'm really crashing and burning huh? Please note the sarcasm there.

In reality, my day was awesome. I was clothed, and not only did I wear clothes, but they were clean, fit correctly, even wore designer jeans, and I had a multitude of options as to what I wanted to wear this morning when I went to my closet. Next up, I have a car to drive to work which also means I have a job which implies that I make money which allows me to buy 3 meals a day (more should I so desire to explore the great American trends of gluttony and greed). I could keep going, but I'm pretty sure that by this point, you all somewhat understand what it is that I'm driving at here.

Thank God that I have all of these wonderful things. I should find it terribly difficult to complain.