This evening I was looking on the Wish Upon A Hero website and was struck by the many, many people who are struggling to make ends meet and are in need of small favors to help keep them afloat in difficult times. I read the story of a husband and wife with 4 children who are living in a hotel right now and have exhausted various government programs that might help to keep them from becoming homeless. Though the husband works, he only gets paid on the days in which there is work to be done, and this is not always consistent. They're looking for help paying for tonight's room. I took care of it.
It's impossible to read most of these stories and not feel for the difficult predicament so many are in. It's equally impossible to read them and not feel a greater sense of thankfulness for the good fortune that I and most of my friends and family enjoy. Sure I've worked hard and used my talents to be successful, but I also had an awful lot of luck.
For those who don't think of themselves as lucky, we need only consider the staggering odds that we would be born into the circumstances that we were. Of the several billion people in the world, there was nothing but good luck that caused me to be born in the US, in a great family, healthy, and with strong talents versus being born in an impoverished third world nation with little hope to ever go beyond bare subsistence living. I was born into opportunities that a tiny fraction of 1/100th of 1% of the world's population will ever know. I'd call that pretty darn lucky.
If you're ever feeling unlucky, take a moment and go to the Wish Upon A Hero site and read some of those stories. Better yet, share some of your good fortune and grant somebody's wish.
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