We went out today, and saw Guardians of the Galaxy. (It's totally great, by the way, you should see it. It was my 2nd time and I loved it.) After I dropped Missy, my sister-in-law, and our friend Rachel off, I went to go look for a parking space.
The place was a mob scene. I cruised around for like 15 minutes trying to find a space, and fighting traffic to get one. I saw spots open up, only to watch them get claimed minutes later, before I could negotiate the busy lot to reach them.
It was pretty damn annoying.
After the movie, we went to a supermarket, to get a few things, and it was the same deal. Navigating inside the store was so annoying.
I got kind of cranky about it. Although, I didn't say a word to anyone.
As I mentioned in previous entries, I'm squarely focused on compassion in my meditation and contemplation these days. That's why, when I realized what a whiny crybaby I was being about all this, I didn't bitch slap myself too hard.
Getting cranky over a problem finding parking at a mall is just... shallow. There are people who don't have shelter, food, water, proper clothing, or the means to educate themselves.
There's this joking hashtag on twitter, #firstworldproblems about exactly this sort of thing.
I've written tweets in that hashtag. I've found tweets by others to be funny.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that these sorts of jokes are so offensive that we shouldn't say them. I'm also not saying that a crowded mall parking lot isn't really annoying.
I'm saying that sometimes, when I pull my head out of my ass, I can see exactly how much privilege I have.
I'm grateful for it. So much so, that I decided to do something to help others with less privilege than I, and just set up a Kiva loan. What's that? Here, look: