Overcoming

I fancy myself somewhat of a history buff. I’m addicted to YouTube channels about history and biographies, I’m nearly always reading a book about a famous person. Right now it’s a book on the life of Elenor Roosevelt.

No matter which famous person I read about, I am struck by one thing, the incredible adversity so many overcame. Even Eleanor with all her privilege had a horrible childhood, was mocked by her mother and saw her father die of alcoholism with much more adversity in her adult life.

Harry Truman was a failure in business. U.S, Grant too was a failure more than once. The list goes on.

But in each case these individuals who now have books written about their lives overcame whatever they faced, they kept going, they picked up the broken dreams and started over sometimes multiple times.

I guess that is what makes them different, why we remember them. But it’s not just people who have books written about them, there are millions of average people who may not be famous, but who have overcome obstacles that would have stopped many of us.

Knowing all this frustrates me when I read and hear the rhetoric of the day moaning about student loans, living paycheck to paycheck, the need for more child tax credits, the fairness of taking more from others and all the rest.

No, I’m not saying people should suffer or walk through a trial by fire, but I am saying individuals need to take responsibility for their life decisions and choices, need to stop feeling entitled or envious of the success of others fairly gained, to accept and then find ways to overcome their failures.

We are not victims, past generations have had it far worse than we do today and I bet it’s not hard to find someone who faced and overcame adversity and obstacles far greater than ourselves.