I Was Thinking... Compared To

Occasionally, my wife and I will go for a ride. That immediately defines our stage in life. Most people, when they get in a vehicle, have a definite destination in mind. But at a certain age, you decide you want to get out of the house but don’t have any particular place in mind to go.

Usually, these rides encompass an area that is in a different direction than our normal routes. It is also a time to explore the newer areas of our town, a neighboring town, or a new rural development. During these excursions, I often find myself amazed at how our areas have grown and how big so many of the new homes are. It is then that the green-eyed monster of envy often creeps into my mind. My house sure doesn’t compare to these two-story, three car garage homes on a half-acre of manicured lawn. Comparison can be a useful tool or a depressing experience.

If you are engaged in the purchasing of a new car, a major appliance for your home or even selecting a hotel for an upcoming vacation, it is a good thing to compare your options. However, if you start to compare your lot in life to others, it can lead to a frustrating and often spiraling descent into doom and gloom.

One of the reasons for the negativism is the fact that most of the time we only look up. We look at those that have a bigger house, a newer more expensive car, took a vacation to a more glamorous location or have a higher paying or more prestigious job.

Recently many of us watched the summer Olympics. If we try to compare any of our athletic endeavors to those who competed in Paris, we will fall miserably short. When we compare our annual income to that of the contract signed by Viking wide receiver Justin Jefferson, we are total failures.

I was feeling pretty good recently after I swept out our garage and put up some new pegboard to hang tools on. That was until I drove past my neighbor’s garage that had the epoxy floor coating, was insulated and sheet rocked with white mounted cabinets and the big screen TV on the wall. Comparisons can make you bitter. But maybe you are looking in the wrong places.

If you’ve had the opportunity to travel, you have probably seen some amazing sites. We tend to be drawn to those places. Everybody has been to Mount Rushmore to see the stone-faced presidents. I’ve been in the Empire State Building, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and viewed St. Louis from the famous Arch.

All are spectacular structures. We’ve visited the Hearst Castle in California, the Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Each one is more lavish and extraordinary than the other. When I walk back into my house, it is pretty plain. However, on the way to getting to some of those famous places we’ve also seen another side of life.

On the way to Gulf Shores Alabama, we drove through one of the poorest run-down areas in Arkansas I’d ever seen. On the way to the French Quarter in New Orleans we viewed so many homes in disrepair. On our way to Mesa, Arizona we passed through some pretty shabby small towns in New Mexico.

Every large city, including Minnesota, has an increasing homeless population. Drive around the older sections of most towns and look at those homes. Most aren’t extravagant, but just modest homes. Now consider those that are trying desperately to get into our country, many times illegally. Most have risked everything just for the hope of getting what so many of us take for granted.

We can always find somebody or something that seems better. But we could just as easily find many people that wish they were in our situation. When we compare what we don’t have, we fail to fully appreciate what we do have. Comparisons can make us feel bad for what we feel we lack or extremely grateful for how we have been blessed. It is all a matter of perspective.

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