A Culture of Entitlement

Oh the irony in this picture...

Here's a fact: People are increasingly growing a sense of entitlement. Things like better/faster service, cheaper pricing with higher quality...it's a complete disconnect from reality.

I was talking with my mother-in-love the other day about the how food has changed, and specifically the anomaly of the "home cooked meal."  She told me that she was talking with another family member about how back in the day the idea of food bought for the store was a rarity and truly "amazing" and how we have flipped that to now be that a home cooked meal is equally amazing.

So what does that have to due with entitlement?  Well...a lot!  Home cooked meals are not as prevalent nowadays because it takes a long time.  Look at something as "simple" as lasagna.  All the steps involved...it's a tedious process.  Why do that when I can (for cheaper) buy one already made?  Here's the issue...somewhere along the way, the convenience of having everything at our finger tips and removing the "labour of love" behind cooking...we have turned even something as simple as cooking into an entitled right.  Stores like Whole Foods make a mint off of this change.  "Quality" food hot and ready for you (all the love, none of the work...yea right!).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not on the "everybody runs to fast and we all need to slow down and sing some Earth Wind & Fire and things will be fixed...DOUBLE yea right!)

My point is this: You're not that big a deal.  Trust me.  There's people smarter, bigger, richer, nicer, taller, better-looking, and that care more about the things that you think you care a lot about.  I'm guilty, you're guilty...fact is, we have grown this crazy thought that the world revolves around us (I still wonder if I'm Truman, and you are all paid to hand around).  Running in and out of meetings, living off of Google Calendar, it's an epidemic that for the most part, has not been diagnosed.

In 20 years, my daughters won't remember that I only bought them organic winter coats from some ritzy story or that they had every Veggie Tales movie ever made.  They WILL remember that daddy had the best bed-time stories, and that time that I loved them more than I loved playing Madden on my PS3.  I don't want my kids to feel entitled to anything.  I don't want to feel like I'm entitled to anything...especially because at the end of the day...I'm really only entitled to one thing...