Money doesn't grow on trees

 There were certain truisms that I learned at a very early age.Truisms like "money doesn't grow on trees".

They are as true today as they were 60 years ago and will be 60 years from now.

They are immutable and indisputable.

Fruit,nuts and leaves grow on trees, not money.

Another one of these truisms is "Life isn't fair".

Remember that one.

How many times after I blurted out "that's not fair" did some adult ,my father,my mother,an aunt ,an uncle or a teacher respond with "life isn't fair.....deal with it!".

Once again, this is as true today as it has ever been,

According to Oxford,some other words for fair are, just equitable,open-minded,honest upright honorable,trustworthy.impartial,unbiased,unprejudiced and nonpartisan.

Life really isn't any of these things.

Some aspects of life maybe.

Some individuals might be all or some of these.

We each may have the capacity to be these things at some level.

However, generally speaking, life itself just isn't.

I was beginning to slip into angry guy mode again earlier in the day.

I was feeling put upon, under appreciated,under valued ,disrespected, overlooked and unimportant.

It felt unfair.

It felt unjust.

Well David, that's too damn bad!

Grow up and pull up your big boy pants. Life isn't fair and it isn't just.

This made me think about all of the nonsense swirling around in the political and social arenas today.

The term Social Justice, is a biggie!

Here's the thing, at least as I see it.

You can legislate social change.

Women won the right to vote.

Color barriers have been legislated against.

Gay rights have become law.

Many many injustices have been and continue to be addressed in the courts and by law.

That's a good thing.

The problem that no one seems to understand is that you cannot legislate what people think.

You can't pass laws that will change a persons heart.

Biases are a part of being human.

No matter what acts of Congress are set before us, life will never be fair.

People will always be who they are.

It's human nature.

So, like I heard as a child, deal with it.

One thing I know for a fact, there is always a way to deal with it. Actually, there is more than one way to deal with it. There are at least two.

The right way,and the wrong way.

Seems to me, there is an awful lot of the latter going on and not a whole bunch of effort being put into the former in my view.

Today, amidst my frustration and negativity, I chose to deal with my life the right way and turn my mood and day around.

What a novel approach to life!

Shabbat Shalom!