Despite being able to feel sensations like course and smooth, to think and ponder over nearly anything and everything we wish, and to listen to the chirping of the birds welcoming sunrise, we continue to grieve over things which, although trivial in nature, seem as insurmountable as a mountain. This idea of “making a mountain out of a mole hill” is an issue that we encounter often in our daily lives.
It is surprising how we fail to learn from the physically challenged — many of whom, in spite of their disabilities, don’t forget to be grateful to their Lord. Their complaints that perhaps He left them incomplete or imperfect are hardly anything compared to our wails and cries. Instead of frowns, they have smiles pasted on their faces. It’s amazing how they remain thankful and how they realize that things could have been far worse than their current condition. It’s also amazing how, despite being complete and healthy, we remain ungrateful, failing to see through a wall of troubles that we claim are the greatest problems ever faced!
It’s incredible how we fail to thank the two feet that carry us for miles and how we don’t realize the worth of our eyes that show us uncountable hues and colors. In fact, all that we direct our eyes to see are lavish glass apartments that we cannot rent or red muscle cars that we cannot drive. All our narrow brains can comprehend is that we need to own the latest smartphone and bring home the latest fashions to our wardrobes.
How undernourished children go unseen and how much of the world strives to own just a single pair of shoes is something that deserves consideration. What should scream for our attention is not the latest tourist destinations but the destinations that house the poor — the places where millions of suppressed voices sacrifice their basic human rights daily.
Major world institutions, which were born out of the ashes of the dead who were lost to war, still haven’t shown much in the way of progress. Poor people are nothing but pawns in the game of chess that the ungrateful wealthy play in order to satisfy their never-ending consumerist appetite.
It’s astonishing then that people can live in poverty or live with disabilities and illness and yet remain thankful — remain positive. I don’t know how they do it, but it is something undeniably impressive that we all need to strive for.