Life's Funny That Way

May 25 - Self-Control is...

...rearing it's head in limited quantities these days, it seems.  Self control used to mean that even though you were mad, angry, depressed, anxious, hateful.. whatever, you found a way to deal with it that didn't involve hurting anyone else.  I understand that this economy is the worst that some people remember.  I get that.  I just don't get why some people feel the need to take it out on other people.  Why do fathers shoot their entire family and then themselves... because he has lost his job and is about to lose his house is not an acceptable answer to me.  There is the old adage that you always hurt the ones you love, but I think this takes it a bit too far.  I also understand that the human mind is a very intricate set of wires and mazes and it can be set off at any time for any reason.  I just don't get the senselessness sometimes.  I don't really watch the news much anymore.  It's not because I don't care - it's because so many people are going too far.  I understand the people are hurting.  I understand that they may not see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My situation is not the best, either, but I know that my family and few close friends are going through the same things.  We'll find a way to pull out of this.  All is not lost.  Brighter days are coming.  I know that is hard for people to understand and realize. 

Maybe for me it is because many years of my past are what I would call the darkest days of my life.  So I don't have enough money right now to do everything I want to do.  We are starting a small business right now and, let me tell you, it's not easy.  But every day that I wake up is a chance to make a difference in my situation.  I can't give up now.  I've come to far and been through to much to roll over and die (or kill) now.

Speaking of self-control, if more of us had it, we wouldn't be in the situations we find ourselves in.  I don't, in any way, mean to offend anyone, but if most of America was not living well above its means, we would not have most of the problem that we are seeing now. If people were not depending on credit to make the world go around and simply doing and buying what they could afford....well, it would be a different world entirely. 

If I'm making $20K a year and someone tells me I can afford a $600K house because they have this cool deal for me, and I take it, only to find out later that my payment adjusted and I can't afford it, then I am to blame.  If someone tells me to invest in these condos because I "can't go wrong", and the economy takes a dump, I should have no more of a right to whine about it than someone who lost their money in the stock market - which I was told was unsafe, and that instead I should put all of my money into some condo that hasn't even been built yet in the hopes that someone would take it off my hands as soon as the building was done and I would reap some amazing profit.

And don't even get me started about the fact that McDonald's coffee is hot.... .Hmmmmm... self control.  I guess I should look into that myself.