Inconveniences

The recent cruise liner incident reminds me of stories of the way many people historically came to the United States, some with great desire to come here, some quite against their will, but all with varying degrees of what we would consider bad travel conditions. Many immigrants from Europe coming to Ellis Island were on ships living in each other’s vomit and raw sewage. Slaves from Africa had it the worst being packed in like they were mere cargo with no thought to their hygienic needs. Many didn’t survive the voyage and some were thrown overboard alive for various reasons.

Just a thought – do you get angry and complain because of some minor inconvenience? We have gone from being people who can tolerate the poorest of conditions and even great injustice to come to America to a people who can’t seem to tolerate the smallest inconveniences like waiting a few minutes for a table in a restaurant, cleaning up after a young child, cleaning toilets at a spiritual retreat, watching someone not do something your way and letting them do it their way because they are still getting the job done… the list could on.