Gains through attrition - the last thought swirling in my head as I drifted off last night. Seems contradictory huh? How could the antithesis produce such a result? The answer to these questions is that it is not contradictory at all, sometimes the opposite is what we need to give us what we want. There's a quaint little conundrum to wrap your cranium around. The theory is that the yin-yang bring balance and harmony, so I am going to do my best to apply this in a few areas.
The idea for this post came about during a discussion (we will call it a discussion to be nice, but it was a flat-out argument) about OWS - Occupy Wall Street for the abbreviation challenged. Originally, I was thinking about the less is more concept using personal sacrifice to better myself. Many others out there do this. It is not unusual for someone to take a job that pays less, may not be ideal or has undesirable hours just to get income. In regards to the MC and I, we don't live beyond our means, we are responsible with what we spend, we try to put money in savings, we don't buy goods that we will not use and we try to set the same example for our children. I have a job that isn't perfect, but it pays well and provides. The MC has went back to school, gotten a degree and is working his way up the ladder through grit and determination. We have less now so that we can have more in the future.
Barring a huge rant right now, this is not the popular view to have with the OWS and they seem set on getting what is not owed to them. They also believe that those who are financially depressed will find it all but impossible to do anything but remain mired in the doldrums of poverty. There is a thought that is personally offensive. Following the no-whining rule of this blog, I will just give you the facts...I was born into poverty, not the standard of living slightly below the norm either. I was born to two drug addicts, one of them a convicted felon and the other whom ended up in a car accident and was left brain-damaged. I was destitute, homeless, hungry, dirty - for all intensive purposes what is called sub-poverty. By all expectation, I was set to fail, to become a casualty of the system, essentially a product of what I was born into. Thankfully I was born with more than just my circumstance, I was born with determination and stubbornness. I wanted more than I had, not just for myself, but for others as well. By telling people this I want to give hope, not take it away and seem impossible to better yourself. It's possible and I am proof. The MC and I have a middle class income and we dug deep to get there. You can do it! I have faith enough for all of us!
The final part of this post is going to address the fallout of the discussion/argument on the MC's facebook page. The narrow-minded idealism of microcosm thinking has people so tunnel visioned that anyone who doesn't share their exact view is automatically the enemy. He was "unfriended" by two people for not being completely in-line with their thinking. What a squander of an opportunity to share ideas, converse, debate and ultimately get their thoughts out! Who needs to hear an argument worse than the person who doesn't share your thinking? How can you possibly begin to know what an effective rebuttal would be without knowing your opponent's argument? It is sad that some people don't understand that in order to be heard, you have to listen. You want to make a difference, then make yourself heard. They were given a chance to change someone's mind and instead all they did was throw a melodramatic temper tantrum. he may have lost yesterday in numbers of friends, but he gained in quality. There were friends on both sides of the fence that saw merit in both sides, discussion was had and most of us agreed to disagree. So two people failed at the opportunity to influence, while approximately 7 succeeded.
That my readers, is today's mullings for gains through attrition. More to come soon.
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