Philosophy Inspired by Saw II and Def Leppard

Last night, we watched the horror movie Saw II. We enjoy a good horror flick every now and then. Gets the blood pumping. First, let me just say, it was well done.

The opening scene, as disturbing as it was, made my husband physically sweat and I had to avert my eyes for part of it. Bravo to a movie that can do that to two seasoned horror flick watchers! The serial killer in the flick kidnaps people, puts them in disturbing situations where they have to decide if they value their life enough to do something horrible like cut off their own leg, etc to survive. They are given the tools, given a time limit and then forced to make the choice.

As I was falling asleep last night, I remember thinking about the premise of the movie. How much do we all really value our lives? We go about our day to day life, drinking coffee, going to work and dealing with stress on the job, grocery shopping, etc. It can be very mundane. There can be lots to complain about. We all do it.

Then, something hit me that is very simple and something that probably everyone else already knows, but it finally "clicked". No matter who you are, whether you are on welfare and living in a shack or living in a mansion with a swimming pool, there is always someone worse off and always someone better off. We can all achieve our butts off, but if we are in that mindset, we can always fall into the trap of wanting more and not really remembering how many people wish they were in the situation we are currently in. I guess you hear the old saying "There is always someone else worse off" but I don't know that I really ever put it all together. I do like my life. Yes, there are people out there with more money, bigger homes and smaller jeans, but so what? There always will be. We could spend an eternity playing the comparison game if we choose to do so.

When the drummer from Def Leppard lost his arm in car crash, he could have played the "woe is me" game--and who would have blamed him if he did? For crying out loud, he was drummer-- and he lost an ARM! Instead, he just adapted to his new situation. He became the world's first (and only?) truly successful one-armed drummer. (We also watched a Def Leppard special last night before bed. You can imagine the weird dreams I have with the mixture of thoughts running through my mind as I fall asleep...) I am going to try ("try" being the key word here) to embrace life more and look at problems differently. Aren't we supposed to see them as challenges instead of obstacles? Opportunity for growth? Easier said than done, but I really like the sound of it.

I guess what I am trying to say is yes, I do value my life and I appreciate all I have, but I really hope that no one makes me saw off my own leg to prove it!