.:.:.

There are four dimensions to life..

1) What you get
2) What you need
3) What you deserve
4) What you want..

You have a good shot at being happy if (1) overlaps with two or more of the factors above. But you have a jumbo-sized problem on your hands if (1) is light years away from all the remaining three.. In fact, you can pretty much scratch "what you need" from consideration. "Need" is a relative concept that degrades rapidly in the face of moderate adversity. Do you really need French bagels? Hmm, no. You could live with wholegrain bread. But then do you really need wholegrain bread? Maybe not. You could live off plain bread. But how much plain bread? Do you need 5 slices, or would just one suffice?

You can see my drift. "Need" tells you what will allow you to exist. No more. It doesnt tell you what will make you feel alive, rather than just exist. That's where what you "want" comes into play. Ofcourse, you may want all of Bill G's wealth. So you moderate the want by thinking about what you deserve. And almost everyone with a balanced mind knows what they deserve. And what pisses me off infinitely is when I am made to realise that what I deserve, may not be what I will get.

There are some things you make yourself capable of deserving by upgrading yourself. Take for example, a 5-figure income. You may not deserve one just on the basis of a college education. But, you can take the pains to become deserving of one, by getting a degree or two. But thats the farthest you can stretch that approach. You can only apply it to stuff that's objective and pliable. You cannot successfully deal with all aberrations of luck. Or society. Or religion.

Every Master's student with a 3.5+ GPA deserves a well paying job. Many didn't get one in the turmoil during 2000 - 2003. Even then, such a person could pursue a PhD, and then try or a job. There's still hope in these cases.

But take a different example. Everyone deserves good health. How many actually get it? You may be gifted enough to become a pilot, but what if you turn out colour blind? You see what I am talking about.

There are those who say "if life gives you a lemon, make lemonade". I say that's a nonsensical sound bite. A life that hands out hopeless lemons more than 50% of the time is depressing, no matter how much lemonade you try to make out of it. You are always going to find yourselves swimming upstream. And if you are like me, you are going to end up being mighty upset and disillusioned about the whole affair every once in a while. Anyways, this is just a post to get the sting caused by some unfair things that I observe around me, in lives of those I care about, and there's nothing at all I can do to change them..