There sure are a lot of ideas about important issues in the world! Whether your concern is politics, religion, sports, global warming, or the black-bellied-dew-lover, there is someone out there who has a different opinion on the subject than you do. I remember being shocked in a college sociology class when one of the reasons given of why poor people exist was so wealthier people have a baseline from which to judge their success. I thought that was a very poor reason, but I am sure there are many people who need [dollar] poor people to feel better about themselves and their position in life.

Opening the door to discussion and poor people, there are many people in the world who believe in other reasons of why there the worlds poor exist. Some believe they were in a different reality or state of being before coming here. In that place, they plotted out their lives in great detail depending on what they need to learn or accomplish here on their earth journey. I can see how this thinking has appeal, as it is reasonable. It may explain why there is so much needless suffering and pain in our world, and why so little seems to be done about it that actually helps it.

Of all the people in these life situations, I wonder if any of them, even a large enough percentage of them to be a slight majority, feel they selected the life they are living? I can imagine myself, plotting out my life so it is comfortable, with a few bumps in the road, but overall an easy life to get through, and I have plenty of opportunity to accomplish what I think I should be doing here on earth.

I can not on the other hand imagine myself choosing to be born, live and die, in a nameless slum in a mostly poor, under developed country. Somewhere where I would rarely go to sleep wrapped up in the contentment of my life. A life, where many of my brothers and sisters, and friends, died from hunger, or other childhood diseases would be terrible to live through. Or even worse, be one of the many thousands in war torn parts of the world where I would have been mutilated, and disfigured because I have the wrong family roots.

What noble spirits these people must have if indeed they plan out their life in such conditions that even the poorest person I know is living like royalty compared to them! I like to think I am a somewhat caring person, and I try to make this world a little better every day. But if all those spirits who chose a life of suffering get from me is a lukewarm effort to improve the world, I wonder if it is worth it for them?

Then of course some people feel that they live an impoverished life because they need to learn something from it. Edgar Casey who’s writings I have a lot of respect for is in this group of people. I remember reading Casey doing a reading of a woman with polio who had a crippled hip and leg. Casey in his trance-like state told the woman she was crippled in the hip because in another life she was a Roman citizen of some status who laughed while a woman in an arena was being savaged by a starving lion, and her hip was crushed in that lions jaws. Casey said this woman was paying the price for her actions. This version of life carries a lot more meaning to me, and is also much more sobering idea than the previous version, and thinking about it too long makes it somewhat frightening.

There is another group of Christians who take yet another spin on this thought. They feel that the bible verse about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the heads of the son’s is directly speaking of karma and reincarnation. The problems we suffer in this life are a result of something we did within three previous lives of this life. This is another idea that when thought about too long could cause some long term sleepless nights for some people.

Just to round things out, there are the children’s stories, where bad people somehow always meet with a bad ending. Somehow these stories make life a little better, leaving me with the idea, that everything balances out in the end. As an adult, it is just defining that end point where everything works out for the best that causes sleep loss.

Today this day is set aside to be grateful – here in my country. Grateful I am, that if any of the above beliefs are true that I am not among the starving, the poor, or the wartime victims. I am grateful, for a life that is stable, and as secure as I have a right to expect. I have good, abundant food to eat, hot water, and clean clothes. I am thankful, that while I may not be doing everything I can to make the world a better place, I happily do enough to look at myself in a mirror, and sleep at night.

I hope your life is filled with things that make you content. I hope you can look yourself in the mirror and know that you do what you can. Perhaps every one of those beliefs is valid and true, only our view changes. If those people did before coming here, choose that life of poverty and despair for me to learn from, I hope I am a worthy student. Finally, I hope we both do not look down upon those who appear to have less than ourselves, and we do what we can to improve their situation, even a little.

As the saying goes, remember the reason for the season. Happy Thanksgiving!