Initial entry

After months of people suggesting I start blogging I've decided to get on it.

This could be because I lay here victim of my second ruptured achilles and have nothing better to do with my life. But "Hey!", why the hell not?

So I'm sitting here looking out the window of my 20-something floor bedroom and looking at a beautiful day. However somehow my eyes were drawn to my favorite Boston homeless man. He is the weather man. We developed a relationship when one day I was walking through the common and this man screams at me "37 degrees today, partly cloudy and 41 tomorrow, but the weekend looks nice". I look at him and say "Is that right or are you just making shit up?". To which he responds, "Brother I'm as right as the paid weather man. Now can you spare some change for my services?" So, here I am in the dilemma. Do I just give him change for the hell of it or do I test out his theory with some incentive? So I respond that I will give him $20 tomorrow if I check the forecast and he's right. So he agrees. I go home and he was right.

The next day I walk through the common again and there he is in the same spot, so I break out a $20 bill (fresh from the ATM) and hand it to him. He asks me if I have a five, which I do. He takes the five and hands back the twenty, stating that it was unrealistic for him to take my 20 when he already knew he was right.

This brings me to think of entitlement. We live in a society in which we all feel entitled. I have a facebook page, where I am known for creating status messages with the sole intention of provoking thought and conversation. However at times people take them personally and feel they have to defend themselves. I also live in a building where I am vastly surrounded by the entitled and they treat everyone around them like absolute shit. They don't greet anybody, and often times they assume that I, as the black man, am the help, not a resident.

We are in an economy where people are learning everyday that they aren't entitled. They don't deserve the job they have. They are not indispensable and they do not walk on water. It's my facebook page, you don't have to read what's on it, but just because you read it doesn't mean you're entitled to respond. These people work in the building, provide you a service and often times kiss your ass just to make you smile, yet you can't ask their name. There are millions of people who have been laid off but you take advantage of the fact that you have a job, slack off, bullshit and don't do that which you are paid for because you feel you're special. The CFO of Freddie Mac may have committed suicide today and I doubt anybody reading this is as good at anything as this person was at his job in order to get to that level.

My brother is a professional football player. He is among the few blessed with the talent to be able to not just make it but actually perform at this level. Yet, he thanks god everyday for the talent he was given. The professional sports arena is a place where many feel entitled, but not all.

I am simply thankful for the fact that I woke up this morning because someone else didn't. I am thankful for the fact that I have an achilles to rupture (although it hurts...a lot), because someone else would like to just have legs.

We are not entitled, we are blessed. Blessed for the life we weren't given.