Poverty: A Curse Or A Blessing?

When I was a child, my family and I used to take a road trip to my dads village every year back in India. There was something different about living in that environment, it was calm, quiet, and most importantly, it made you appreciate what you had. There were many things I learnt there, but there was one thing I will never forget. 

The tires of our 1990 Marshall Jeep trudged through the uneven muddy road, and the engine that I never gave a heed to before in the midst of the city noise was louder than ever. I heard the familiar noise of children and I turned around to looked back. They were running after the car; I guess the engine's noise attracted them. It wasn't everyday that cars rolled up into the village, it was something rare for them, and they looked like little children on the morning of Eid or Christmas Eve eagerly running after it. 

We got out of the car, and they ran off away from us, laughing and enjoying themselves. It bugged me how happy they were. After all, I was the special boy. Our family got the special treatment of rich sweets, a generator and high quality food, so why were they happy? I looked at them outside the window. They had found something else to chase, and off they went, yelling and laughing again. I thought what did they have that I didn't? Up until now I never knew that the answer. Little did I know the answer lied in the question that I was asking myself; they had nothing. 

You and I, we do have images to upholster or at least maintain. We will buy a new iPhone if it means we are more regarded in society. We get flashy cars so that people see us and respect us more. There's a race, even if subconscious, to get to the top of the ladder of materialism. But they, they have nothing to maintain and upholster in a niche society were getting from day 1 to day 2 is the biggest accomplishment that they achieve almost daily. 

We have something to lose, we have something to gain. We need to be careful in what we do or say, but who's going to look at the poor man? They only have something to gain, their lives have little give to become worse, so why worry about it? They have accepted the fact that they are poor and they have moved on to look at the positive side of life. We, we will never be content with our lives, we will never be happy with who we are because we want more. We want bigger, we want flashier, we want to be at the top of the world. We can't, neigh, we don't want to accept who we are and that keeps us going in a circle of an unhappy life. 

We have the stress and tension of a million things for example jobs, studies, where will our lives be in 5 years time and our plan to get there yadayaday, and with every milestone we finish, we feel happy for ourselves.

But our happiness isn't real. Our happiness is like shots of heroin. It gives us that high of happiness for a second which is then subdued by the stress and tension of the next milestone. We'll strive for that shot of success to be happy every single time, and the next high of happiness will need a bigger accomplishment and a bigger goal to being achieved. 

It all boils down to one question really. Are we happy? When we pass by a homeless person, we feel sorry for them. Some of us might throw in a dollar to the poor man, try to indulge in his sad life for a second or two and then move on. But should we feel sorry for them, or feel sorry for ourselves? The answer is we should feel sorry for ourselves, because no matter what happens or what we do, they will be truly happy. And honestly put, no matter how many Benjamin Franklins we collect, it wont buy us happiness, and no matter how much we educate ourselves, we'll never be able to learn happiness like they have. I'll end it off by saying I envy every last one of them, but the materialism of this life has gotten to me so bad, that even though deep inside I know they are truly happy, I'll still run around looking for that high, looking for that next shot of happiness.