On my phone, I have an app that shows me the weather in twenty different cities. I have the weather for where I live in Sacramento as well as weather in Bournemouth, England and Los Gatos, California and Florence, Italy. I have weather for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Irkutsk, Russia, and Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, China. I have weather for Paris and Nice in France and Quito in Ecuador. I have weather for Denver, Colorado, Fargo, North Dakota and New York, New York.
Light Morning Mist on the American River in Sacramento
Why? A few of the reasons are straightforward and obvious. My daughter lives near Los Gatos, California. My in-laws live in Bournemouth, England. I have done business in Seattle, another place I have on my weather app as well as New York and Fargo. I have thought about moving to Denver, fewer socialists than here in the land of entitlement-Sacramento, but very cold at night! I lived in Northern Italy and the weather in Florence mimics where I used to live. And, I didn’t see nearly enough of Florence and want to go back.
Irkutsk is close to Lake Baikal, one of the wonders of the world, and a place I want to go. Paris has the Louvre, which I have never seen. Some of these places on my list are where I have been and where I want to go, and some are where people near and dear to me live. And, some of these places are there to remind me that what I can feel with the tip of my nose on a cold morning is not what others are feeling at exactly the same time.
There are mornings when I am walking the dog’s by the American River in Sacramento at six or seven in the morning and I think, “Darn! It’s cold!” Then I look on my phone and see that it’s 11 below zero in Irkutsk and that’s at 11:00 PM the next day! Imagine how cold it would be at six in the morning there? And, on January 9, 2013, today, sunrise was around 7:23 AM. At Lake Baikal, it was 10:06 AM!
Sometimes I will be in traffic in Sacramento and think “Man this is a pain!” Then I will think about what traffic must be like in Shanghai, China where there are 23 million people! That is about fifteen times the population of the greater Sacramento area.
Why am I telling you this? I am saying these things as a reminder to you, but mostly me, that the world is a big place and that my problems are usually very small. I write to remind me that if I am too cold, I can travel to a warmer place. If I want to completely change my world, I can simply go somewhere else. And, I try to think about what life is like for other people in other places at exactly the same time that I am running by the river or going to sleep at night or having lunch.
The world is an amazing place full of variety and it’s all happening right now. Now, throw in history and how fast we are learning and creating knowledge. How can you ever be bored? There is so much to think about, so much to learn and so much to see, how can you ever really feel discontent?
So, the next time you think you are cold, think about Irkustk, Russia. The next time you think-”Too many people!”-think about Shanghai. The next time you think,“Too many people with an entitlement mentality!” think about Denver.
Things are different in other places and for other people. And, on their best day, many of these people would trade their lot for yours in a microsecond.