Like
most of you, I have experienced a lot of unfairness in life. I was not born a
fast runner. I could’ve trained until my nose bled, and would’ve only
accomplished the ability to run a little faster. But never FAST.
I wanted
to be able to play the piano and the guitar, but I wasn’t born with a spirit of
stick-to-itiveness. I tried my near-best to learn to read music. I can still remember
the musical tool of “Every Good Boy Does Find.” Unfortunately, I have no
remembrance of what it refers to. Yet, some kids are writing concerto’s at the
age of four. I don’t even know what a concerto is.
I
had no desire to play chess or disassemble an alarm clock and then put it back
together. Had PCs been around when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have seen the point
in having one? As a child I could find no reason for which to proud of myself. My
friends couldn’t even find one for me.
The
thing I was most ashamed of was my inability to determine when someone was trying
to trick me out of something. It would take me a good 15 minutes to catch on to
the fact that Dennis had tricked me into trading my good Fanner Fifty holster
for his ruined one. It really hurts when you earn the distinction of being the
butt of the joke. I tried to get revenge, but I could seldom pull it off. I
believe it was John Wayne who said, “Life is tough, but it’s tougher when
you’re stupid.”
If you
mess up enough, you catch onto the notion that life isn’t fair. It’s people
with no problems that have trouble arriving at that conclusion. Here’s a John
Wayne quote that actually applies to that.
-- “If everything isn't black and white, I say why the hell not.” It’s
the simplicity of the statement that makes it so popular. It’s that same
simplicity that makes it so wrong.
None of us are participating in life on a level playing field. From the get go, many of us are walking up hill while others are coasting downhill. My talents were not those that one generally associates with success. The vast majority of us aren’t born into wealth. The Beatles were right in singing that “Money can’t buy you love,” but wealth can certainly level out the playing field for you.
In
truth, unfairness, has its good points. There would be no movies worth watching
and no novels worth reading were things perfectly fair. Human interest lies in
stories of individuals who have overcome unfairness in life to the point of
greatness.
My
friend Johnny showed up last Tuesday and we went to see Equalizer 2. It’s one
of those action movies where the bad guys are really bad. The goal of most
action movies is to generate in the viewer a sense of hatred for the bad guys. I
don’t care how unfair the life of a bad guy was, I want him brought down. I
hate to give away the ending to Equalizer 2, but Denzel Washington ends up
killing all the bad guys. And I ended up with a real sense of satisfaction in
him doing it. Shallow in the heart of mankind is the sense of fulfillment in
someone getting his or her comeuppance. – Wow! That just came to me.
You and
I are very fortunate not to be numbered among the bad guys in life. However, we
are and always will be subject to some of life’s unfairness. Being treated
unfairly can create in the actions of some of us a need to rant and rave or flash
an obscene gesture or pull a gun. If you survive the experience, it becomes a
part of who you are. In other words,
we’re each the sum total of all the good and bad stuff that’s happened to us. In
fact, who and where you are in life this very minute is a result of how you reacted
to stuff that’s happened to you. -- I’m sure John Wayne could have made that
point so much simpler.
What I
managed to learn from my bouts with unfairness is that there is no peace in
thinking that things were meant to be fair. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try
to level the playing field for one another; it’s just that some fields can’t be
leveled. Not physically or mentally. If Kay wishes to donate my brain to
science there will be some noticeable irregularities between my brain and Einstein’s
or Steven Jobs or Boy George. None of us had the same mental makeup.
While I
see no sign of complete fairness in the physical or mental aspect of mankind, I
do believe that we find a level playing in our spirituality. And with that I
will give you a quote I ran across this morning. You can blame this quote on me
choosing this less than humorous topic. I have no idea who first penned these
words. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t John Wayne. So, I now leave you with this
thought – “It is in a world unfair that faith gains its legitimacy.”
end
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