Member-only story
The World Doesn’t Owe You Anything
Only you have the power to change your life
When I was in my 20s, I had an elderly neighbor who didn’t drive. I offered to pick up groceries for her. We became friends. She told me about her life.
She was 8 years old when the Great Depression hit. Her parents couldn’t afford to care for her so they put her in an orphanage. After a few years they were able to bring her home.
She told me this without anger or resentment. She said she appreciated that people were willing to care for her when her own parents couldn’t.
I also had a neighbor who lived through WWII. She lost her brother to the Nazis. Her husband served in Italy. She moved to California to work in a munitions factory. She had to use rations and live far from loved ones.
It was worse for those in the UK, or France, or, God forbid, Nanking.
Yet my neighbor and other survivors I’ve talked to seldom whine about the suffering they endured.
They understood something important.
Life is unfair.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to make it better.
In the United States, children no longer work in factories. People are no longer kept in bondage. Women vote and own property. Free…
