i often hear people say (and think myself) that they deserve something. but the question is – why do we deserve things at all? and compared to who? is this word just a relic from religion – a reminder of the categories hell/heaven? or is it a disguised form of presumption?
any thoughts?
what we deserve in life is perhaps the same thing as what we expect of life?
and isn’t it kind of amazing to be alive at all, considering the odds?
16 Comments
paul
05/03/2009 at 11:58 pmSpeaking of mind-bogglers, check this out if you don’t already know it:
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
Proving we all share the same basic DNA and were blown out of Africa across the world, like so may dandelion seeds! And the most amazing part: all humans alive on the planet today came from one African woman, ohhh, about 200,000 years ago! The Creationists got the one mom bit right, but undoubtedly, we humans weren’t frolicking with the dinosaurs 6000 years ago!! Ha!
Katarina
06/03/2009 at 2:33 pminteresting, i’ll check it out! i actually read an article yesterday about darwin in ng. it mentioned that, and also that everyone with blue eyes actually carry a small mutation in the 15th cromosome and that this mutation is orginially from one single person..
paul
07/03/2009 at 12:01 amthat’s the concept that’s hard to get your head around…all of us from the same woman!
Sorry, if I seem obsessed with the Creationist ridiculousness, but I’ve been amusing myself with you tube videos of the Creation Museum in Kentucky (worth a moment’s look into, if only for the slap in the face that people will believe anything, if it’s couched in ‘religion’!). The sad and scary thing is how many people choose to ignore the science, which in itself is OK- it’s their right, but the same people feel the need to subject the rest of us with their backward views….on EVERYTHING! The irony in all of it is how most people (at least here in the US) would support the right of people to have most of these tangential views, but the same people with the tangential views never accept that other people have the right to their own, differing views!
Carolina
05/03/2009 at 10:10 pmEngelska är ju inte min starka sida, men vad du ifrågasätter är varför vi tycker oss förtjäna saker?
Varför vi tycker oss förtjäna saker när vi egentligen borde vara nöjda över att vi är födda?
Om det är så du resonerar håller jag inte med.
Man kan ju inte gå och vara glad för det man har Hela tiden, då skulle vi ju totalt stanna i utvecklingen. Dessutom tror jag inte man skulle må så bra om man inte ansåg sig ha rätt att vilja ha mer. Det är ju som att neka ett barn lördagsgodis för att det ska vara tacksamt att det får mat och tak över huvudet, för det får ju minsann inte barnen i Afrika.
Eller? (jag kan ju ha uppfattat allt helt fel, isf så säg bara till)
Katarina
05/03/2009 at 10:46 pmjag förstår vad du menar fast jag håller inte riktigt med.. det handlar inte om att jämföra sig med barnen i afrika – det handlar inte om att jämföra sig med någon överhuvudtaget. det handlar inte heller om att tycka att man inte förtjänar mer – jag menar snarare att man kanske borde sluta förvänta sig så mycket saker. till exempel hälsa, att vara frisk är inte en självklarhet eller något man förtjänar. och skönhet – att vara vacker är ingen mänsklig rättighet.
Carolina
07/03/2009 at 10:22 pmalltså att uppskatta mer. Det kan jag gå med på.
paul
05/03/2009 at 8:54 pmYes, the other side of our, hopefully, ‘evolving’ intelligence (could we just stick ‘intelligent design’ in a pair of cement shoes and toss it into the East River!), as humans, is that we have allowed our ability to analyze and think, blur our vision and cloud our priorities (as humans). The presumption that we deserve, or even expect, anything in life has been one of the big self-centered human fallacies. maybe the source of many of our problems. Following is my very simplified chart for identifying the world’s problems!
More thinking =more ‘thingifying’*
More thingifying = less living.
Less living= less experience.
Less experience = less compassion.
Less compassion= less understanding
less understanding = most of the messes with which we are dealing!
*for this purpose, thingifying is the mental act of humans turning living creatures (particularly humans) into ‘things’ , thereby making it easy to do anything to them and not feel bad!
Obviously, thinking has given us some of the amazing advances, from which we all benefit (particularly the ability to communicate with the world so effortlessly!). I love what humans can and have created, ugly and beautiful (though that depends on the viewer, doesn’t it?). We would all do well to open our eyes more and really ‘see’ what’s out there.
So, in long-winded way, I’m only saying we need a better balance and more ‘re-thinking’….which your original question also suggests so nicely. If more of us asked that simple question and appreciated the fact that it is miraculous we’re alive, at all, the world would be well on it’s way to being a better place!! Thanks for the ‘spur’- hope this makes some sense!
Katarina
05/03/2009 at 10:39 pmthank you for your very inspirational, intelligent and commited reply! i completely agree. i think most people can relate to your chart, being thankful is the hardest thing.. and i think people need to discuss this -we need to remind ourselves of how many of us there are out there feeling the same way at times and that there actually is a reason for feeling unhappy with your situation..
paul
05/03/2009 at 11:25 pmit’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives; thankfulness never even enters our thought process. The truly exciting, liberating and revolutionary thing about the interconnectedness of the internet is that these ideas can come to the forefront and people can see there really are lots of others with the same thoughts/dreams/aspirations. Or they can be exposed to new ideas, which can open their minds to the possibilities they may not have within their lives/situations. The realization that maybe they can change something about how they live, because others out there are also doing that…can be HUGELY liberating and amazing.
You’re doing your part by keeping the torch lit…remaining a beacon, you light the unknown.
Keep up the inspiration!
Katarina
06/03/2009 at 2:27 pmniceley put! and thank you :)
Diana Lia
05/03/2009 at 7:38 pmI don’t think there is any meaning with our existence. We fill it with meaning ourselves and that creates certain expectations. We find our own place in the hierarchy through how people see and treat us. Some of us can choose to advance, some don’t have the tools to do so. When comparing yourself with people in the same position as you, or people with whom you identify, that also creates certain expectations of what we deserve/don’t deserve. We all want a piece of the cake and if my friend gets a piece of it, naturally I presume that I should get one too. If my idol can have fame and fortune, then why can’t I? I think that’s how our minds work.
And also, it is amazing to be alive at all. But there’s quite a big difference to be alive and to be living, is it not? Living in a western society, it probably is pretty amazing to be alive, most of the time. Alot of us have the oppurtunity to shape our lives as we please and that is a privilege not to be neglected.
Last, but not least, you have a very inspirational blog. Fortsätt så! :)
Katarina
05/03/2009 at 10:33 pmi agree with you. but at the same time i believe that people have the tendency of thinking that they deserve alot of things while taking many other things for granted. to be healthy, for example, is nothing noone deserves. neither is being unhealthy. beauty is not a human right. sure, sometimes we compare ourselves to other people and say – why don’t i have that? but we often forget the misfortunes and hard things they’ve went through/are still going through in their lives.
thank you! :)
laura
05/03/2009 at 1:38 pmnicely said :)
we play this game (life) that’s designed so that “there” is always better than “here”. so in the rush to getting “there”, may that be more money, more free time, a marriage, a trip, a new pair of shoes or that amazingly lit flat, all those odds seem to fade in the big picture. don’t you think?
I’d like to add to what you said, about this being entitled to attitude, the fact that we also think that things -should be- in a certain way, when we could enjoy the endless possibilities
Katarina
05/03/2009 at 6:36 pmi completely agree :)
laura
05/03/2009 at 1:03 pmwhat do you mean by “considering the odds”?
Katarina
05/03/2009 at 1:19 pmthe odds of being exactly that sperm hitting that egg in that female, that our parents ever met, that the species homo sapiens ever developed through evolution and made it possible for us, living today, to be born, that the chemical balance of materia; the distance from the sun and the circumstances in this galaxy made it possible for life to develope on planet earth 4 billion years ago. (and no, i do not believe in intelligent design.)