Some folks’ lives never roll at all—Paul Simon
We have spent the week at our new second home in the North Carolina mountains. My wife has admitted to feeling twinges of guilt about it. I don’t. Who is right?
On the one hand, I have worked hard for what I have. I have overcome some challenges along the way. No one served me my life on a silver platter. As far as I know, my good fortune never cost anyone anything along the way. On the other hand, I know I didn’t create myself; I had the invaluable assistance of countless people, most notably my family, along the way. My life, and yours, is an infinite chain of events mostly outside my control that could have turned out differently in a universe of ways. Finally, I was lucky enough to grow up in the US, not South Sudan. For all these reasons, you will never hear me say “I built this.”
I think the best response to good fortune is humility and gratitude, not guilt. Our objective should be to see that as many people as possible can realize their dreams, not to feel bad about achieving our own.
Happy Easter!