Rumor has it that a former coworker of mine found a bag of money on the side of the highway and came in to the office and retired the very next day. I also used to work with a nurse who won a million dollars from a McDonald’s game. She continued to work, though, which astounded me. And everyone hears stories of people who find priceless works of art at yard sales. Or someone builds a better mousetrap and becomes a millionaire.
How often do things like this really happen though? How many of these stories are apocryphal? It seems that none of us can resist passing these stories on. Maybe it’s because for those of us who struggle to remain at the top of the heap in the struggling lower class, it gives us some hope, however unrealistic, that there’s a way out.
Poverty is like a bucket of crabs. You spend your whole life trying crawl over the top of all the crabs below you, and the rim of the bucket is in sight, and then someone’s claw grabs your leg and pulls you right back down.
So my question is this: is it cruel to pass on these rags to riches stories, which give false hope? Does it prevent us from seeing our lives realistically, coming to accept them as they are, and maybe savoring those brief moments of joy that do come along? Or, on the other hand, are these stories the only things that stand between us and utter despair? In other words, do we give up and resign ourselves to our lot in life and finally reach some form of acceptance, or do we dream and strive and swallow the opiate of the masses and hope that we will be one of the rare ones who overcome?
Leave a Reply