Life Is Like a Deck of Cards

Contemplating life’s deck, we uncover the uncomfortable truth of our persistent yearning for just a bit more. From the comforts of North Knoxville to the staggering realities of global poverty, this episode challenges the notion of contentment and the rare moment of acknowledging that maybe, just maybe, we already have our fair share. Engage with stories that tug at your self-awareness and take a moment to reflect on whether you'd risk shuffling the deck of life again. Can we accept and appreciate the cards we've been given, or do we continue to chase the elusive peace that comes with being truly satisfied?

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories, thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. A possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Greetings and salutations. This is Lyndon Wolfe and you have found my audio memoir, not a podcast. It's called here for the Memories. Love having visitors, glad you joined and I hope you visit often.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Life is like a deck of cards. It might not be brazen, blatant entitlement, but it gets too close for comfort. You know, while immersed in a sea of great things, waves of blessings upon blessings, drowning in opportunity and relative affluence, we find ourselves wanting and wishing not for glaring leaps in the improvement of our circumstances. That would be too obviously self-absorbed when we consider those that are less fortunate, but small, incremental, just a wee little bit more. These, if only serve as a deflating reminder that what we have and where we are in life are just not enough to get us over the hump of happiness, the ceaseless climb towards contentment, to that endlessly elusive place where we say not only is it enough, but it is more than my fair share, or I have been given infinitely more than I deserve. For example, as much as I would like to take credit for it, I cannot say that being born a citizen of the United States was one of my better choices. I had nothing to do with it. Yet here I am in a land where even the poor are rich by global standards. I could have been born and live in Mali or Bangladesh, chad or South Sudan, where the vast majority of people live below the international poverty level.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Does anyone listening to the sound of my voice know what the international poverty level is? I know these things can be rather abstract and sometimes they're merely creations or fabrications of bureaucratic economists, but the number that has been established for the international poverty level is frightening it is $2.15 per day. Let me say that again for impact, not just for you, but also for myself. The international poverty level is $2.15 per day, not our money. We drop that much and never stop and stoop to pick it up. In the countries I just listed, the vast majority, in some cases 80 to 90% of people live below that level.

Speaker 2: 3:06

There's also what they call multi-dimensional poverty, where a lack of education or access to infrastructure makes you poorer but, in a different sense, still poor. For example, if you're a successful farmer who makes more than $2.15 per day, but you don't have enough potable running water available or you're illiterate or you lack adequate health care, you may be considered to be living in multidimensional poverty. Yep, I was such a smart embryo that I decided I would be better off living and being raised in North Knoxville by rock-solid parents oblivious to the necessities of food, shelter and clothing readily at my disposal. No, what we had was not anywhere close to the lavish or luxurious, but compared to these places I was filthy rich, and I still am. But yet I want a little bit more. It's just not enough. No, I'm not flagrant about my lust, but deep inside my soul there's a gnawing that keeps tugging at my contentment and says but if only Look at Joe, with a few more good breaks and amid a deluge of blessings, I am not satisfied. Nor is anyone that I know, as I long for something that is not the answer to my cravings.

Speaker 2: 4:30

If you have any EQ or self-awareness, you must admit, at least privately, that you suffer from the same malady. I don't remember or repeat it often enough, but I've often given the example that if life were a deck of cards, then I would not take the card I have probably a king or queen, I'd say king and put it back in the deck, shuffle and redraw. The odds of me having something better than my king, for example, is very remote. This means I need to be cognizant that if my life were to be done over from scratch from conception, the odds of me being as fortunate as I am are minuscule, even less than the redrawing of the card that you have been given from the deck of life.

Speaker 2: 5:18

Think about it. Are you grateful? I need to be more grateful. Do you see all the blessings, all the good things around you, or is there a cloud in every silver lining? Are you more caught up in what you don't have than what you do? Sometimes we just need to reevaluate, reassess. This is Lyndon Wolfe. This is here for the Memories. I'm so glad you stopped by. Keep making memories, treasure them and see the good in every circumstance.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Hello friends, If you appreciate the content and what it takes to create and deliver it, please consider a small contribution. Just go to buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories. That's buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories Much appreciated.