4/10/12

I've been browsing the virtual art galleries on googleartproject.com. It's really amazing. You can see in fantastic definition thousands of works of art in galleries all across the world. There has been so much beauty recorded over many centuries. Also recorded was the pain that brought us this beauty. Paintings of the poor and infirm lie amongst other paintings of the most beautiful architecture and other man made things. In ancient cultures did they have companies or contractors you could hire to design the most elegant and detailed sitting rooms? Probably not. Right? I'm guessing some sort of slavery or at the very best workers getting paid less than the bare minimum and working in squalor. If I were rich I would want nice things. The nicest. It would be hard not to. This brings me to survival and greed. Most of human history is people trying to survive and live as "well" as possible. Who could blame them. Even in America in the 21st century people are trying to survive. Luckily we can travel far and wide or just locally and not be concerned about animals attacking us or bullets flying in our direction. Where I'm going with this is we want to survive, more than less. We see people with more than us and assume they'll probably live longer and better. This is all very obvious but stay with me. Because having more probably means more survival we all try to have as much as possible. This is where survival becomes greed. I am thankful to live in a time when my survival is generally guaranteed. This allows me the realistic opportunity to try to not be greedy. I have so much compared to so many people living or dead. It may be possible that life is not fair but these days being fair is more than possible. See what I did there? Pretty clever, huh?