Brian S. Pratt, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Brian S. Pratt
It's Not Fair!!! 12/10/2007 10:19:12 AM
...so cried one of my children. I’ll not say which one, nor will I detail the specific, perceived injustice that prompted the outcry. I looked into the troubled, hurt eyes of my child knowing that my child wished for me to make it right. And with a nonchalant shrug, I said: ‘So?” You could imagine the hue and cry which came after receiving my response.
Daddy would not make it right? (Or at least right in the eyes of my child.). As the tears started to fall, I sat in a nearby chair and wrapped my child in my arms. “Life is not fair,” I said.
“Why not?” came the anguished reply.
“It just isn’t,” I stated with all the compassion a father could muster for a hurt child. “And there is nothing anyone can do about it.”
So many times I have heard people raise the cry, ‘It’s not fair!” And they are right, it isn’t. But then again, life isn’t supposed to be.
Is it fair for some people to be short while others are tall? Some gain weight with little intake while others seem to be thin as a rail while pigging out at the local buffet regularly? That some die early or are crippled while others live long with active lives? No, it isn’t. But that’s life.
There is no equality in people, only equality in opportunities. My meaning is that, your life is what you make it. I am fat. I am overweight and who do I have to blame for that? Me. Do I exercise? No. Do I eat right? No. My choice, my life. So, should I see a thin person and cry, “It’s not fair?” Hell no. It’s not the other person’s fault I am the way I am. I take responsibility for my own actions. The fact is, I like to eat brownies, McDonalds, milk shakes, etc a whole lot more than being thin. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be overweight, yes?
Life isn’t fair, get over it already.
Are men and women equal? To that I say, no. Since no two men are equal, and no two women are equal, how then can we state matter-of-factly that both sides are equal? I know many women smarter than me, more athletic than me, more social than me. So am I their equal?
I believe we should say instead that all are equal in the fact that each has abilities and handicaps which make each person unique. And it is that uniqueness which makes us the same. I’ll not even get into the race issue for that is just stupid. People are people the globe over no matter what their outward appearance may be.
And what kind of world would we be in if everyone was born exactly the same? Not one in which I would wish to live in let me tell you. Androgynous non-gender people, each who are evermore unable to stand out from the crowd. There would be no more basketball heroes, no braniacs working to overcome life’s miseries, no more spelling bees for everyone would be just as smart, athletic, capable and healthy, as the next person.
Our differences are what pique our curiosity, make us wonder about why things are the way they are. We are a curious and inventive species. We live longer now than we have ever done in our entire history upon this world. Would this have come about if everyone lived exactly as long as the next person? I somehow doubt it.
We are who we are. Most of the people crying ‘It’s not fair’ that I have encountered, had tended to make choices early in life which led them to the point of unfairness. The only ones I would say who could justifiably make the statement, ‘It’s not fair’ are those with illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, etc. I feel for those people and yes, don’t believe it is fair that they have to go through it. But again, life isn’t fair. Sometimes it’s hard to say.
For the rest of us, we should pull up our bootstraps, persevere and make life what you want it to be. Opportunities abound, we just have to be brave enough to take the risk. Life’s not fair. So what? Live it!
