Appreciation
This is the second of a four part series which was brought up by my thoughts about eating meat. One could easily wonder what war / peace and appreciation have to do with eating meat, but it will probably become clear when the last is completed. One of the greatest qualities to have a wonderful life is to appreciate. Everyone lives a mixed life with some things that they like and some things that they would have differently. If I predominantly appreciate what I have, then I will have a very sweet life. However, if I predominantly focus on what is lacking (is the glass half full or half empty), then I will have a life full of misery. One of the best ways to improve my life is to practice learning to appreciate what I have. Another factor that infulences the quality of my life is the degree to which I develop my connection with the people around me. If I view the world around as a cold and unfriendly place full of adversaries and objects to be manipulated then I will surely have a miserable life. If, however, I view the world around me as being full of friends and family with whom I have a close connection, then my life will be very sweet. As a result, I try to fully appreciate my connection with the people around me. What amazes me is how so many people take the ordinary things that we in the developed world get in stores for granted. For example, when I eat a bite of corn flakes I try to remind myself of all the people that help bring that relatively simple food to me and appreciate their efforts and feel the connection that I have with them. Of course it is easy to remember the farmer who planted and harvested the crops, but there are so many other people. From the clerks in the store who put out and maintained the items, to the transport people who shipped the items, and all the people who processed and packaged the food into such a convenient and delectable form. Of course even that is a woefully incomplete list. The farmer and transport people could not have done their jobs except for the tractors, trucks, forklifts, etc. which are such an intrinsic part of our lives. Those tools they used were assembled in numerous factories from literally thousands of parts made in thousands of factories. Those factories were built, equipped and maintained by hundreds of thousands of people using resources from throughout the world (and including recycled goods like tin and aluminum cans). Those resources and all the factories and machines used to transport and process them were the results of the efforts of hundreds of millions people. Of course those are only the people who directly contributed to my bite of corn flakes, but there are also those who indirectly contributed to my food. There are the lawyers, bankers, stock brokers, and investors (people like me) who arranged the land and resources to be there when needed. This would also include the politicians, government workers, and tax payers would supported all the roads and such to support their efforts. There are also all the people who provided the housing, training, food, and clothes for all those people. Indeed, if you are willing to look far enough you can see that well over half the population of the world contributed in one way or another to virtually everything that I have. One of the ways that I make my life sweeter is to appreciate how many people have contributed to my well being and to devote my efforts to repaying their contributions, developing my connection with them. Click here to see the next rambling taleThis page was last updated on April 20, 2007