First World Problems — Life on the Run
Daily Meditation 584–10/2/2023
We may not often think about it, but consider the life of wild animals.
They likely awake quite early — at the first pinks of dawn, in the wee hours.
It may be winter, far below zero, wind howling and sweeping fresh snow over frozen crusts of ice.
They might’ve gone two, three or more days without being able to leave their den…it’s just too cold or there’s too much snow.
In summer, the scorching heat evaporates the easily accessible waters.
They’re constantly scrapping and fighting with one another for bits and morsels of food.
24 hours a day, they’re likely a prey animal, ever watching the skies for hawks, falcons, and more that may bullet out of the sky in just a couple seconds, snatching them up in great, piercing talons before being torn to pieces — flesh, fur, and bones quickly disjointed and devoured (sometimes still alive).
Even once they go to sleep in their nests and dens and dreys, they still must worry about night creatures such as snakes or owls or raccoons trying to “break in” to kill them and eat them.
Meanwhile, we go to our grocery stores, grab fresh fruits and vegetables and meat, angry that the clerk isn’t ringing things up faster.
Meanwhile, we go to our day job, anxious about our job performance.
Meanwhile, we flick a switch and have instant, clean, and hot water on demand or lights allowing us to see at night.
This isn’t to make you feel badly, but rather to invite you to gratitude for the sheltered, easy-access life you have in the modern and developed world.
Electricity.
Internet.
Clean water.
Ample (perhaps too ample) food.
It wasn’t that long ago that our ancestors, themselves, had more “wild” worries — invading tribes, disease, and predators in their camps.
Life, today, is better than ever and we should acknowledge our first world problems as decidedly preferable over being, well, eaten.
Hit the ✉️Email Subscribe✉️ button to get these DAILY in your inbox!
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
