What Have I Done To Deserve This?

I walked past a homeless person on the street yesterday. It wasn’t a very cold evening but I am sure the evenings will get colder as winter sets in.

I stand here in my apartment typing this on my standing desk. I am blessed with food, a nice roof over my head, a computer to type this post on, and more. And I ask myself the a simple question – ‘What have I done to deserve this?’

I can argue that a lot of what I have gotten is thanks to hard work. It’s not a bad argument but it would completely ignore the fact that I started from a different point. I was fortunate to be born in a middle class family that gave me access to certain kinds of opportunities. I doubt he had that fortune. It was the luck of the draw.

Even if, thanks to a quirk of human nature, we spend most of our lives looking at people who have gotten luckier/more than us, we often tend to forget we have a lot more than we are thankful for. More resources. More power.

And with this power comes a responsibility to do more, to make this world a better place. And that’s why I welcome this thought. When I question what I have done to deserve what I have, the real answer is that you and I I got really lucky. Sure, we worked hard. But we did get lucky and without that luck, this hard work could have amounted for nothing.

It’s good to be reminded. It’s good to be thankful.

Now, we just have to make it count.