Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 29, 2010
View from the Cheap Seats
Are you entitled
Bill James
WmJamesJr@aol.com
As Americans, we feel entitled. We live in a great country. We are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is right ... we are entitled to it. Of course, that doesn’t mean we are going to get it.
Who your parents are and where you are born may have some effect on what you think you are entitled to in this world. Ultimately, no matter who you are, we are all entitled to the same thing: nothing. There is no one in this world that is entitled to anything, without exception. Anyone and everyone can lose all they have no matter where they start out or presently sit. No one is immune from losing it all, this means you.
What if you did lose everything? Money, property, family, friends. They are all gone in my hypothetical. Let’s say you wake up somewhere with nothing more than your wits and the clothes on your back. What would you do? Could you survive? Could you get back some or all of what you lost?
In order to get where you are going, you have to plan for the future. How do you plan for the future when you are forced to concentrate on the minefields made up of today’s obstacles just to get to tomorrow? It is hard to get anywhere without planning, but even harder if you don’t. For some, the challenge would be almost insurmountable, and it would be easy to quit.
It is my assumption that, even though it could happen, few people reading this will ever lose everything as I have described above. Notwithstanding, we will all experience loss and disruption in our lives that will create a life experience that fails to meet the requirements of the life to which we believe we are entitled. What will you do when that happens?
Will you simply let life take you along for a ride without fighting back or will you buckle down and fight for the life you deserve. Or should I say, entitled?
It is said that when a man (or woman) stands at the edge of the abyss and nothing looks back at them, that is when one learns what they have inside. It is at such times in our lives that we must rage against the darkness and demand the life to which we are entitled. Demanding the life you are entitled is the first step to getting what you deserve. You may not get it, but you probably won’t if you don’t try. The best way to do that is one step at a time.
No one is a quitter who keeps on trying. You have not failed until you have finally quit. It all sounds a little too gitchy and nothing more than a group of platitudes. But it is true. What we are entitled to is the opportunity to do the very best we can and let the rest work itself out on its own. It is easy to sit around and think about what we are entitled to, it is quite another to go after it. That is true even way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
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