What we take for granted

[eCo]

What we take for granted
Part I

It's really amazing how lucky we are, that we don't have a worry about having to survive or anything like that. Sometimes I think that all human beings, in general are spoiled by what we got and how we take it all for granted. Sometimes I'm ashamed of myself because I forget that I should be thankful of what I've got.

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from college. Since I was angry, I was driving fast. I usually drive fast when I'm stressed out or angry at something. I saw something in the middle of the road, but I thought it was some palm leaf. When I got close enough to it, I saw the pure shape of it, a turtle trying to cross the road and making it to the water ditch. Since I was driving fast, I couldn't react in time before I could feel the shell of the turtle hit my car tire. When I looked at my back view mirror I could see the helpless thing spin around over and over again. Which made it worse, I could see its feet wobble helplessly because of me, and behind it was a speeding dump truck.

I felt like I wanted to vomit the next second. I have no idea if the turtle died, or was knocked brain-damaged or even if it survived. All I knew was the turtle couldn't make it to the other side of the road because of me. Before the incident, I wanted to go home and eat, but once I got home, I wasn't so hungary. Its really amazing to see that all humans have to take their life for granted. All what the turtle wanted to do was to reach a safe place, but because of me, it costed the turtle its life.

If you really think about it, humans don't have to worry about anything for survival. We don't need to risk their lives for food, or worry that our homes will be destroyed just for someone's convienence or luxary. I really try hard to be thankful for what I've got, but sometimes I can be so ashamed of myself. Many people say that I take things too serious, and I look at things too deeply, but what can I say, I'm only human.

I know this isn't poetry, but I just felt like posting this, and this being the expression center, I thought this would be the place to post it. I'll post the second part to this in a few days.

[Cactus]

I totally agree, we take so much for granted I remember a story my father told me about when he was a child and it goes thus:

Basically it was 1947 and one of the boys in my dads street came out licking an ice-cube and he was pummuled because he was showing of because his family had a freezer.

It made me laugh because we take things out of the fridge / freezer on a daily basis and think no more of it but back then it was such a big deal that some poor guy took a pasting for it

We have soo much yet still time to bitch that we do not have the latest model etc and I think as a race we are becoming very complacent

[eCo]

Part II

I think about many things. I think about my future, my college work, and then I think how the world works. I think how I'm so fortunate that I do not have to worry about surival, and to enjoy the fact that I am a free individual. Then I even think about animals, that get killed because of humans. If you think about it, cows and pigs are just being breed, just to die. The part that disturbs me, is how they are being slaughtered mass numbers. Infact most of the meat is actually being wasted. When I think about humans being in that position, that feeling disturbs me (as well as any other normal person), but it happens to harmless cows and pigs all the time.

As of lately, I started to sleep easier again. That wasn't the case a week ago. I was at a restuarant. I was in those moods where I just space out, look around, and think about things. They had one of these claw games, you know, where you have a joy stick and the claw drops and picks up a prize. Well this time, it was for lobsters. The claw drops into a lobster tank. I was watching the lobsters move around, and then I saw two of them fighting eachother. Then it suddenly occured to me that they had a mind, and they had feelings(to a lesser point), and no matter what they were going to do, they were going to die. When I saw someone trying to pick them out, I saw all of the lobsters scramble away from the claw, as it hit the surface of the water. I thought to myself "what if that was me" as I looked at the lobsters.

After that, I started to think about becoming a vegetarian. I am still thinking about it. I know it will be very hard to give up on meat, but in the future if I become one, I would be very proud of myself. I could say "I am not part of the mass slaughter of helpless animals, just for my luxary". It's also a healthy and progessive way to live also. People will think I'm smart, because I care about my health and I manage a proper diet. I hope I become one in the future, but for now it seems hard to give up on meat. Also I always considered meat unclean, because if you saw how meat was made, then you wouldn't be so hungary. That night at the resturant, I had trouble sleeping again. I think how lucky I am, that I do not have to give up my life for someone else's luxary.