Perspective

I've been feeling stressed lately. Overwhelmed. I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. My problems are big; my God seems small. Clearly, I need an "attitude adjustment" . . . perspective. Or, as my father would say, "A good, swift kick in the *** to set me on Main Street."

So, here's some perspective. My source for this information is last month's Crown Financial online magazine.

In 1990 the World Bank established international standards for classifying poverty. Essentially, this enables us to understand how much money people have for necessities if were were all on equal footing. These standards allowed for the world’s population to be more accurately classified into two groups: the Poor, who live on $2 per day, and the Ultra-Poor, who live on $1 per day. Using these measures, 1.2 Billion people are Ultra-Poor and 2.6 Billion are Poor. That's Billion with a "B" folks. Almost 4 million people living on less than $2 per day. Combined, this group equals 53 percent of the world’s population. Equally as significant, one-half of the world’s population is under the age of 25.
Consider the nation of Zambia where an estimated 86 percent of the populaton is either Poor or Ultra-Poor. The unemployment rate is 50 percent and inflation is more than 18 percent. Most people are employed in subsistence agriculture, and HIV/AIDS is a significant problem.

Hmmmmm, somehow I don't feel quite so unfortunate right now. How about you? There it is . . . perspective.

"Live simply so that others might simply live." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi