Thursday, November 7, 2013

Another Misguided Thought

I am sure that his will enhance the temperament of many sport's fans, but it is a fact that should not be ignored.

Several years ago I had a lengthy discussion with my oldest son with regard to the money being paid to big league players of football. The discussion was about the tremendous high salary they commanded while the ordinary working man had to hock his wife and family to attend a game due to the ticket cost. I was immediately told, and in no uncertain terms, that these men put everything they had into their chosen profession, and many of them would become incapacitated due to injury and therefore would no longer be able to work in their field, i.e., the big salary for their future.

Arguing would not have been worth the effort at that time as what he said had some merit, although I could name several occupations that were dangerous and yet they were not paid anything like those "what I called outrageous" sums of money.

Today many of them receive more than a million a year...a lot more in fact. I heard today that one is going to receive a huge settlement from the league due his continued head injuries. Now I don't want to be thought of here as insensitive, but really, a settlement in the hundreds of millions? Why don't insurance companies insure these guys, after all they make enough to pay the premiums, or do they?

I have a friend who was injured on the job. He got disability from the state to the tune of $1200.00 a month. Now in his job he actually did a job needed in the community and received a just compensation. I think now that he should have just put his head down and ran into a wall once a week so he could get the large settlement the player got. After all, the player has had several concussions over the years of his playing and anyone with common sense would conclude that maybe the game was dangerous, would lay aside some of that huge salary for the future, and accept his fate since it was of his own choosing.

All right, I concede, maybe this is the only profession he was cut out for...I was supposed to be a mechanic and became a salesman instead...stupid me!

Well, after you get done cussing me out, yelling at me and saying things like, "You don't understand !", or "You are just jealous!" or a hundred other, and probably far worse, comments just take a minute, cool down, and tell me if you would decide to do something you knew was going to disable you for the rest of your life. And if you did choose that profession, would you do it blindly spending your money without regard to you and your family's future?
Forgiveness

One of the hardest things in life, at least for me, is forgiveness. I don't mean simple things like someone hurt your feelings with words or  innocent actions, or that someone cut you off in traffic, I mean big things, things that really tend to hurt and you live with although they are cutting your life short.

Family is probably the toughest. You know how that works. One relative says something, then another picks up on it, and before long, just like that game of whispering in each other's ear in a group and when the whispered line comes out from the last person's understanding, it is nothing like it started out!

Sometimes we say things we don't really mean, or that someone misunderstands and rather than, at that moment questioning it, they let it fester until the sore becomes so big it gets blown completely out of proportion and beyond healing. In most cases, by the time this happens the beginning comment or incident is completely forgotten by the offended person, but the resentment continues on.

How many of us have had this happen to us because of our own misunderstanding? I know that I have been both the perpetrator and the recipient.

I don't know about you, but I have found that the older I get, the more I wish I could understand what I may have done or said that upset someone to the point they refuse to forgive and prefer to join the hatred crowd. I have discovered that when I forgive, I forget and I am much happier because of it.

Simple advice, think before you speak or act, and maybe you won't have this haunt you in the future. That haunting came interrupt your life and especially your sleep! Trust me.