Jodee Taylor: First-World Problems?

Jodee Taylor

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Jodee Taylor
Jodee Taylor

August 22, 2011

By Jodee Taylor, jtaylor@record-eagle.com ---- The Record Eagle Mon Mar 19, 2012, 11:23 AM EDT

An image made the rounds on the Internet a while back -- First World Problems. It's also a Twitter hashtag, #firstworldwoes.

It's funny in an I-don't-want-to-laugh-at-this way.

"My hand is too fat to shove into the Pringles container so I have to tilt it."

"The Domino's pizza tracker isn't working so I don't know when to put on pants."

"My phone battery is low and the charger is over there."

We've all thought along these lines. I know I have. At least I know to catch myself at it and metaphorically slap myself.

Oh, gee. My lawn is brown. Poor me.

Seriously?

I can think of about 60 million people in countries across Africa who would love to have a lawn that was brown. They don't have lawns. They don't have water. They don't have food or homes either.

My phone's not charged? Poor me and my First World problems.

Two billion people in the world live without electricity. Always -- not just after a thunderstorm blows through and the air-conditioning is off for a night. Two billion people work during the daylight, then work by the firelight. No fans cool their beds. No microwave pops their corn.

I freak out when the power goes out, especially in the winter. I imagine someone finding our frozen bodies huddled under every blanket we own. Poor us. We have a dozen blankets.

I whine about spending an hour cleaning the bathroom, but what would I do without indoor plumbing? I whine because my bedroom's too hot, too cold, too cluttered. I whine when my fridge smells because I've let food go bad. I probably throw away more food in a year than some people eat in a year.

The problems that we First-Worlders whine about need to be put in context. Traffic? Is that really worth crabbing about? The price of gas? The price of groceries? We could all do with a little less and we wouldn't suffer one bit. We have water, food, shelter and even a car to suck up gas.

Well, most of us do. Even here in the First World, here in vacationland, there are kids wondering where their next meal is coming from, especially during the summer when school's out. There are kids worried about what they're going to wear the first day of school, not because they're concerned about looking cool, but they're concerned about being warm enough or clean enough or just not having their toes poking out of the holes in their sneakers.

I overheard someone the other day being complimented on her outfit. "Is it new?" "I forgot about it!" she laughed. "It was in my other closet."

Next time you feel like whining, stop for a minute and look around. You'll find at least a handful of blessings in your first-world universe to count. Hopefully, the second closet won't be one of them. Hopefully, you'll look at your family, your just-the-right-size house, your freezer packed with summer's bounty and realize how good you've got it.

Jodee Taylor can be reached at jtaylor@record-eagle.com.