Spoiled? Or count your many blessings.

[Guest]

I had recently seen a commercial about a car.  The actress went on and on about how her fob could start her car and the air conditioning so she wouldn't have to get into a hot car.  Perhaps winter time was not the best time to air this commercial.  Oh well.

 

My first inclination was to think, "Boy, are we ever spoiled!"  Part of it had to do with the way the actress was talking about it.  But really, do we need devices like this?  Are we as pampered as we are going to be able to make it through the end times?

 

My second inclination was to think, "Boy, are we ever blessed to live in such a day and such a land where such things are common."

 

I was pondering this dichotomy later when I got in the car.  On my morning commute, the radio commercial announced:

 

       "The only thing worse than being stuck in traffic is being stuck in traffic with allergies."

                 -- Flonase commercial.

 

I thought, "Really?  The only thing worse?  You can't think of anything worse?"  I can think of quite a few things that are worse.  But I guess we really are spoiled if the worst thing in life is getting stuck in traffic with hay fever.

 

But it got me to thinking that as spoiled as we are, we can still find stuff to complain about.

 

My family had been praying for gratitude specifically because the whole house tends to complain a lot, myself included.  So I figured if we focus on gratitude, it would curb that quite a bit.  So, I began thinking about my own sinuses. They've recently been a lot more clear than they had been.  I was grateful.

 

I started then counting all my blessings.  What else is there to do on your morning drive apart from listening to talk radio tell you about all the horrible things going on in the world?  I began doing more than just counting them.  I really felt them.  I was truly being filled with gratitude after all these weeks of praying, and discussing, and focusing, and so forth.

 

It really was a wonderful experience that I can't adequately describe.  Whenever anyone else told me about similar experiences I usually would smile and nod if not roll my eyes.  I just didn't get it.  Well, now I do.  Gratitude really does make one happy.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Guest

[The Folk Prophet]

Great post, btw. I'm not replying to be contentious...just commenting as my brain wanders on the matter.

 

But really, do we need devices like this? 

 

Of course not. Are you implying that "need" is the only motivation that should count? (I know you're not...but, rather, implying that we should be grateful.)

 

"Boy, are we ever blessed to live in such a day and such a land where such things are common."

 

Just out of curiosity, had you never had such thoughts about other things...like...electricity? I have such thoughts every time the power goes out. Or like a few months back when a construction company broke the water main to our neighborhood and we were without water for a day.

 

I was pondering this dichotomy later when I got in the car.  On my morning commute, the radio commercial announced:

 

       "The only thing worse than being stuck in traffic is being stuck in traffic with allergies."

                 -- Flonase commercial.

 

The only thing worse than being stuck in traffic with allergies is being stuck in a winter snow storm crossing the plains with a handcart where you have to leave your dead child for the wolves because the ground is too frozen to dig a grave...with allergies.

[Guest MormonGator]

We are the luckiest/blessed people in the history of the world. In 1915 life expectancy was around 55. Life truly was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short! 

That's one of the many reasons I am so, so uncomfortable with people complaining about modern life.  I see it all the time. People complaining about how bad the internet or wi-fi is. Oddly, these people usually complain about it...on Facebook. 

[The Folk Prophet]

People complaining about how bad the internet or wi-fi is.

 

Now, wait a minute... I'm paying good, hard-earned money for quality internet. If the company to whom I am paying said money is not providing the service for which I paid, do I not have the right to voice a complaint?

 

Perspective matters...but I'm going to side with bad internet being a just complaint! :)

Edited December 31, 2015 by The Folk Prophet

[Guest MormonGator]

Now, wait a minute... I'm paying good, hard-earned money for quality internet. If the company to whom I am paying said money to is not providing the service for which I paid, do I not have the right to voice a complaint?

 

Perspective matters...but I'm going to side with bad internet being a just complaint! :)

 Very true my friend. 

I see people say "Turn off your wi-fi and talk to people" Well, thank you very much, but some of us enjoy good conversation both face and face and :: gasp :: over wi-fi! In fact, I've made great friends online. Some I talk/text to almost daily. Sure beats the crippling loneliness I felt growing up.  

Oh I could go on! 

[Guest]

The other night when we had a wind chill of -7 and I put my dog out to go potty, I found myself very thankful for indoor plumbing. Not a need, but I'm certainly grateful! 

[zil]

"Spoiled? Or count your many blessings."  Can't it be both?  As far as I'm concerned, the Lord "spoils" me (by which I mean, gives me abundant blessings).

 

 I am so, so uncomfortable with people complaining about modern life.  I see it all the time. People complaining about how bad the internet or wi-fi is. Oddly, these people usually complain about it...on Facebook. 

 

Meanwhile, sheesh, could you quit complaining about our complaining!  I mean, this is the internet!  We come here to complain!  Anonymously!  Man, some Gators just don't get it!

 

</joke> :)

Edited December 31, 2015 by zil

[Guest MormonGator]

 

 

Meanwhile, sheesh, could you complaining about our complaining!  I mean, this is the internet!  We come here to complain!  Anonymously!  Man, some Gators just don't get it!

 

</joke> :)

 That's awesome Zil! lol! 

[Guest]

Old favorite:

 

[pam]

Just a memory from 1992.  I was living in Hawaii at the time and Hurricane Iniki came through.  In our military housing area we were without electricity for 2 days.  Keep in mind that I also had 3 kids under the age of 3 at the time.  

 

We did have access to battery powered radio.  One radio station I listened to had people calling in regarding things going on after the hurricane.  One of the biggest things?  Cable tv went out.  Sheesh.... people were complaining about no TV.  Here I was trying to keep some food from spoiling and having milk for the kids without a way to keep it cool other than a cooler and ice.  Which btw...ice was almost impossible to get during this time.

[Guest]

Of course not. Are you implying that "need" is the only motivation that should count? (I know you're not...but, rather, implying that we should be grateful.)

 

Not exactly.  This statement (yes, it was more of a statement than a question.  The question mark notwithstanding.) was born from a conversation several years ago and I've been saying it often since then.  A friend of mine was strongly condemning me for not having a smart phone.  It wasn't just advice or "selling the point".  He was of the opinion that I was committing some sort of crime against humanity or self-abuse for not having a smart phone.

 

Since then I tend to swing the pendulum the other way to combat this mindset.  I'm not sure how that affects my quest to be more grateful.  Maybe it means that I just need to feel that it is cool we have them.  But I still don't necessarily want to get one myself.

 

Side note: My bishop told all the priests that if they could completely not even touch their phones for 24 hours on Sunday, he'd pay them all $5 each week.  My son doesn't have a phone.  The bishop has not had to pay one cent to anyone else.  But we're not sure if we're going to push the issue with the bishop on our son.

 

Just out of curiosity, had you never had such thoughts about other things...like...electricity? I have such thoughts every time the power goes out. Or like a few months back when a construction company broke the water main to our neighborhood and we were without water for a day.

 

Absolutely.  On the Thanksgiving thread I said how grateful I am for toilet paper and indoor plumbing.  It may seem funny.  But I am dead serious when I say how thankful I am.  I had to use a Korean toilet for my earlier years which was just an open pit in the ground that got sucked out by a honey truck every couple of weeks.  And I had to use crushed up newsprint to ...

 

Yes.  I'm VERY thankful for modern conveniences.

 

I'm grateful for food.  In Korea I had enough to live, but I didn't realize I was literally starving.  When I came to America my adoptive parents couldn't believe how much I was eating.  I ate more than the adults.  Over the years I became somewhat complacent about it.

 

About 8 years ago I saw a youtube video on the conditions of people in North Korea (I was from South).  I saw a kid crouching down to the ground to pick up a crumb of food and eating it.  I had flashbacks to myself doing the same thing in South Korea.  The south has much more abundance than the north.  But the disparity was not as great in my childhood years.  I still found food on the ground and just ate the crumbs.

 

The only thing worse than being stuck in traffic with allergies is being stuck in a winter snow storm crossing the plains with a handcart where you have to leave your dead child for the wolves because the ground is too frozen to dig a grave...with allergies.

 

This is exactly the kind of thing that was going through my mind when I heard the commercial.

[Guest]

So...  just a few months after my dad died, an earthquake went through my hometown.  My cousins who were living at our house at the time called and enthusiastically exclaimed, "the cement wall of the 3-story house next-door fell and landed on our roof!  Praise the Lord that the roof did not cave in!  Your dad is watching over us!"

 

A few days later, Typhoon Yolanda went through my hometown.  My cousins called me again, "A lot of the rooftops flew off.  Praise the Lord that we weren't able to repair our roof yet so the typhoon was not able to take our roof with the cement wall holding it down!"

 

In our farm in the next island over, the person who manages our farm lost his house in the earthquake - every last wall was down on the ground.  He tells me, "Praise the Lord we were all able to leave the house safely before it fell!".  Then after the typhoon, "The typhoon destroyed everything else that was left from the earthquake.  Praise the Lord we were all safe in the church and we had lots of food and water."

 

This is the way I grew up... everything that happens, good or bad, always comes with Praise the Lord.

 

Now... my car doesn't just start remotely that I can trigger from inside the house, the A/C also runs automatically set to my desired temperature so that if it's hot outside, the A/C turns on, and if it's cold outside, the heater turns on... it also has automatic headlamps that turns on when dusk settles or you go under tunnels and turns off when the sun comes up.  It also has automatic windshield wipers that turn on by itself when it starts to rain that also turns the headlamps on if it is raining hard.  It also automatically routes my phone to the car speakers when I'm driving.  It senses if I'm about to hit something and puts a flashing red exclamation point on my dash signifying which part of the car it's about to hit with an accompanying loud beeping noise.  It shows me which of my kids in the backseat are not wearing their seatbelts and it even tells me if my tires are under-inflated and shows me on the dash which tire is the culprit.  It doesn't come with a spare tire or even a jack.  Rather, it comes with this thingamagig that you plug into your socket (used to be a lighter in the old days - now there's several of them in the car only one of which is a lighter), then you plug the black hose onto the tire if the tire only needs more air, or you plug the white hose onto the tire if the tire has a hole... and there's this blue button thing that, if all else fails, you can call somebody whose sole job is to figure out how best to help you... call an ambulance, the cops, a mechanic, a tow truck, etc. etc.

 

Yes, I'm spoiled and I haven't been saying Praise the Lord too often lately.  I need to get back to that, so Carb, thank you for reminding me.

[The Folk Prophet]

Not exactly.  This statement (yes, it was more of a statement than a question.  The question mark notwithstanding.) was born from a conversation several years ago and I've been saying it often since then.  A friend of mine was strongly condemning me for not having a smart phone.  It wasn't just advice or "selling the point".  He was of the opinion that I was committing some sort of crime against humanity or self-abuse for not having a smart phone.

 

Since then I tend to swing the pendulum the other way to combat this mindset.  I'm not sure how that affects my quest to be more grateful.  Maybe it means that I just need to feel that it is cool we have them.  But I still don't necessarily want to get one myself.

 

It's not a crime against humanity. It might be (depending on the reasons why one doesn't have one) a crime against wisdom. :)

[LeSellers]

In 1915 life expectancy was around 55. Life truly was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short!

"Life Expectancy" is a misleading number because so few people know what it actually is, and what it measures.

"Life Expectancy" is also an ellipsis: The correct phrase should be "Life Expectancy at age X". In general, the age is "at birth", meaning at child born in 1915 could have expected to live 55 years, or, that half of the children born that year would live that long, and the other half would die before reaching that birthday.

In almost any age, "Life expectancy at age 55" would be about 30±5 years (half would die before reaching age 85 or so). In fact, life expectancy at age 6 would have been about 75 years.

A great fraction of children, you see, died before reaching age 5, bringing the LE at birth down so low. Disease, accidents, starvation, and exposure were terrible before refrigeration, electric/gas ranges, and furnaces.

A child's life truly was nasty, brutish and short.

Lehi

Edited December 31, 2015 by LeSellers

[Backroads]

... I think I have an old and incredibly boring car aftee reading this thread. No wonder Husband threatens to replace it.

[Guest]

... I think I have an old and incredibly boring car aftee reading this thread. No wonder Husband threatens to replace it.

LOL!  I had also considered this as well.  Such a mixture of emotions on the topic.  I've got a '99 maxi-van and an '07 compact vehicle.  They only have fobs that will lock and unlock the doors.  So, I guess I'm not "special" either.

[dahlia]

The other night when we had a wind chill of -7 and I put my dog out to go potty, I found myself very thankful for indoor plumbing. Not a need, but I'm certainly grateful! 

 

My sister and I were sent to the country one summer while my mother went to summer school. The farm had electricity, but no plumbing. During the day we went to the outhouse. At night we used chamber pots. We had baths in a tub in the kitchen, using water from the front pump. This was in the 1960's, maybe an 2 hours outside of DC. Maybe...

 

I am always grateful for plumbing, lights, and microwaves.  I learned to drive late in life and frequently say out loud how grateful I am for my car - especially when it is 10 degrees or pouring rain. 

[Guest]

That's a good point.  I hadn't considered the cold when thinking about indoor plumbing.  

 

I really have no memory of the cold being a problem during my life in Korea.  But that may be because children feel cold differently than adults do.  The cold never bothered me anyway...

[Guest MormonGator]

"Life Expectancy" is a misleading number because so few people know what it actually is, and what it measures.

"Life Expectancy" is also an ellipsis: The correct phrase should be "Life Expectancy at age X". In general, the age is "at birth", meaning at child born in 1915 could have expected to live 55 years, or, that half of the children born that year would live that long, and the other half would die before reaching that birthday.

In almost any age, "Life expectancy at age 55" would be about 30±5 years (half would die before reaching age 85 or so). In fact, life expectancy at age 6 would have been about 75 years.

A great fraction of children, you see, died before reaching age 5, bringing the LE at birth down so low. Disease, accidents, starvation, and exposure were terrible before refrigeration, electric/gas ranges, and furnaces.

A child's life truly was nasty, brutish and short.

Lehi

 You just proved my point. A TON of people died back then of issues that have been largely defeated. IE-dieases, accidents, starvations, etc. 

[dahlia]

 You just proved my point. A TON of people died back then of issues that have been largely defeated. IE-dieases, accidents, starvations, etc. 

Read 'Spoon River Anthology' by Masters. Many of the young people in the cemetery died from tetanus and other diseases/accidents that are curable or fixable now. Sad. 

 

I had Scarlet Fever when I was a kid. We were quarantined. I got a heart murmur as a remembrance.  Recently I asked a health professional why we don't hear about Scarlet Fever much anymore and she said it was because people get treated for strep, so it doesn't develop into something worse.  

[LeSellers]

You just proved my point. A TON of people died back then of issues that have been largely defeated. IE-dieases, accidents, starvations, etc.

I was not disputing your point.

I was hoping to clarify what "Life Expectancy" means since so few people really understand it. Many think it means that no one lived past age 55 (in your example). Obviously, that's not the case.

Lehi

[Backroads]

In regards to the original post, I think we should be grateful that so much technology has been inspired (yes, despite all the dark sides of technology I believe it's inspired, a gift from God.)

I don't think we need to always compare with such-and-such experiences, but we should maintain gratitude for what we have and not think our lives are over when things go wrong.

A college roommate worked at a shoe store not even two miles away. One day, her car had issues and she was distressed at how she would get to work. All looked at me crazy when I suggested she could just walk.

[Backroads]

For life expectancy, I've seen it stated that in ideal situation a man would live more or less the same number of years no matter when or where he lived. Sure, things affect the reality. Seems like an obvious fact of biology, but combine it with a discussion in life expectancy and people get confused.

[Guest]

In regards to the original post, I think we should be grateful that so much technology has been inspired (yes, despite all the dark sides of technology I believe it's inspired, a gift from God.)

I don't think we need to always compare with such-and-such experiences, but we should maintain gratitude for what we have and not think our lives are over when things go wrong.

A college roommate worked at a shoe store not even two miles away. One day, her car had issues and she was distressed at how she would get to work. All looked at me crazy when I suggested she could just walk.

 

Since I'm deep into prepping, I was wondering how I would get around when gasoline stopped.  I kept looking at old methods of getting around and I couldn't find anything really useful -- I did not have the money to keep a horse for instance.  Then I was reading about what happened in Japan after the tsunami hit Fukishima.  They walked for days to make contact and let people know there were survivors.

 

So... they walked.... duh.  Note to self. If gasoline stops, start walking.

[zil]

Since I'm deep into prepping, I was wondering how I would get around when gasoline stopped.  I kept looking at old methods of getting around and I couldn't find anything really useful -- I did not have the money to keep a horse for instance.  Then I was reading about what happened in Japan after the tsunami hit Fukishima.  They walked for days to make contact and let people know there were survivors.

 

So... they walked.... duh.  Note to self. If gasoline stops, start walking.

 

Dude, at least ride the mountain bike until it wears out, or something (assuming there are either roads or trails, it will be faster - even with one of those kiddie-haulers in tow and stuffed with whatever you can fit...)