I would love to make my first post in a very long time one of clever insight, great content, and pithy sayings. Instead I will whine about how other people whine on their blogs.
****I am a big fat meanie in this post. You have been warned. If you don’t like it you can’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s my blog, and why should I be the only person who doesn’t post self-indulgent, meaningless, uninteresting crap on her blog?****
This post makes me a big fat hypocrite, because I whine on my blog all the time when I can be bothered to write in it. I actually have interesting things to write about in my blog instead of whining, because I have been out living my life. Unfortunately, I have no time to write about the interesting stuff, because I have been out living my life. Now that I have free time for a few minutes, I will spend time whining about myself as a whiner, and other people as whiners. I’m such a whiner.
I did have time to do slacking Google searches, however, and came across a blog about someone who had infertility problems, got IVF even though she couldn’t really afford it, and was busily complaining about how badly everything was going. The whole infertility thing is a hot subject, and I’m reluctant to comment on how I specifically feel about it — even though I’m already an asshole here, because I don’t feel sorry for a person who couldn’t have kids, and so made herself very sick and poor so she could have one, then was unhappy about it. Still what struck me is that the woman wanted to know how much she had to “prostrate herself to the universe” (I think those were the words) in order to “deserve” to be a mom.
Well, it sounds like she got what she wants, but now she “don’t want what she gots.” Something I learned in my mid-20’s or thereabouts: Life is not about what you deserve. People never get what they deserve. Really nice people get shit on all the time, and supreme bottomfeeding pursesnatching assholes get Mazeratis and six figure incomes. It’s not about “deserve”, it’s about your response to the hand you’re dealt in the cosmic card game of the universe.
The Ancient Greeks had this concept of fate, which was really “whatever the gods want to do with you.” The gods put you on sort of a “fate wave,” which left untampered with, would deal out to you over your lifetime a certain amount of happiness and a certain amount of suffering. It was only when you tried to mess with it, i.e. take more than your fair share of happiness, that you increased your suffering. We are dealt whatever life we are dealt. This doesn’t mean we should not use our talents and abilities to try and live the life we desire, but sometimes we need the self-knowledge to realize when something we want is our fair portion - that is, our lot in life - and when we need to adjust our response to the hand we’ve been dealt.
Or in other words, if you have a phenomenal verbal SAT score but your math score is low to average, don’t go to college with the intention of becoming a Mathematics PhD with a specialty in differential equations. According to the Greeks, you will only bring suffering upon yourself.