be grateful for what you have

Yesterday my lawyer friend called me out for a drink. we went down to a chinese shop and he ordered a stout and i just stuck to a hot chinese tea which was invigorating on a chilly night. We talked about many things but he kept coming back to his personal problems. His financial set backs and blah blah blah. Another person was sitting quietly at out table, you see we actually sat at his table because the place was packed. He was merely waiting for his ta pau. Finally he got up when his food arrived and we saw that he was handicapped. His legs were too thin to hold him up and he laboured in his strides. We gathered that he works at an insurance company and has three children to feed. My friend casually asked him how was he managing his life and family with his condition. He smiled before saying something which struck me and my friend as something worth sharing with you people. He said: I am already born into this world in this condition and I have no choice but to live." He said it not out of hatred for those who are normal or anger. That, I told me friend is something for him to chew on. You see so many people are really ungrateful, not thankful for what they have. My friend has half a million ringgit in insurance money due to mature in a few years time. He drives a sonata and has a renovated terrace house in pandan jaya. He is complaining that life is not good enough for him. Like him there are so many people who are lamenting not because they lack what they need but because they cannot get what they want. The episode brings to mind what Gandhi je once said: "For the needy something is enough for the greedy nothing is enough."