I've often heard people say that life isn't fair. What would need to happen to make it fair? Everyone would need to have the same level of intelligence, the same work ethic, the identical support system, the exact physical appearance, equal health status, the same education, and identical powers of creativity and initiative. That might be fair, but where would be the opportunity for some to excel? Who would have the notion to create things that others wanted to buy? What would happen if we all had the same amount of money? What if we all had exactly the same skill at math, the same grasp of language, identical abilities at writing? Who would be the astronomer? The author? The microbiologist?
Is it fair that one person becomes a heart surgeon and another an auto mechanic? Is it fair that someone drives a newer car than I do? Is it fair that someone's house is bigger than mine? I hear ads saying, "Get the things you deserve." Who has determined what each of us deserves? What did we do to deserve it? It's a mentality that frightens me.
Do we expect the same from everyone? When I need a mechanic, a surgeon is useless. When my bathtub leaks, an attorney is no help. I have a brother who graduated in math and a brother who hated math in college, and yet they are both successful adults. Different is good, even if it's not exactly fair.
This is not what I started out to say, it just sort of grew on its own.
4 comments:
As my father always used to tell us, "Life isn't fair". I too wonder about the "fairness" of things. We're born in this country and not in some third world country. Is that fair?
i took a workshop once that talked about three worlds: force, fairness and freedom. Freedom is by far the best, where every one can win and be individuals with their own choices and agency. Fairness demands competition, judging and weighing whereas in freedom world, all can win in their own way. in force we make everyone do it our way. this might sound slightly familiar...
So glad you stopped by my page. Your thoughts on fairness are right on target, very insightful. I like it. It immediately brought to mind my mother's idea of "fairness". When she got the notion that we needed a beating as kids, all 4 of us were included - from me the oldest (16 yrs old) to the baby (4 yrs old). She said she wanted to make sure she got the right one. Go figure.
One of my college professors said that his definition of fair was that everyone gets what they need not necessarily that everyone gets the same thing.
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