Unfortunate to be fortunate???

I belong to the generation of baby boomers who though had it rough in childhood, through the good luck of being academically inclined and armed with a college qualification, rode on the economic wave when Singapore moved from developing to develped status. I move in a small circle of colleagues,ex-classmates, husband's ex-classmates, all in similar mould who own private property, own club membership, car, goes for annual holiday and whose children mainly go to top 10 schools, JCs and on to university. Most are also Christians although this feature I run short of. Yeh, the lucky generation who suffered some hardship as a child, but lived comfortably for a long while from adulthood and expectantly thereafter.So amongst my counsins in my father's large extended family, you can see the marked difference in lifestyle between the acamdemically successful and the not so academically successful, other than the few entrepreneurial ones. My thought today is not whether this "protected" class and their offsprings will stay forever protected from the ills of economic and social upheaval, although this can be deliberated some other day. (See, many of the people in this class even have the means to make provision to ensure each of their children have a roof over their heads). My thoughts for today is that those who enjoyed privileges as something that comes naturally may feel deprived quite easily.

Hmmm.... what the heck am I talking about, I am a bit confused.Well, what starts me on this trend of thought was a small incident after taiji class this morning. My club rings off a certain area of the car park for taiji every Sunday morning until about 9.15 am when the class ends. The part fenced off is the area closest to the check in area of the swimming pool and the gym. This fencing off practice has inconvenienced people who have to walk about 50 meters to the check in area, for their weekend "Exercise Regime".Compliants have been lodged but sacrifices still have to be made for various activities. This morning just as the rope was lifted and whilst the taiji people were still milling in the area, a car sped across to the end. Wah, some alert driver who managed to avoid hitting anyone but who made his point felt.A family alighted with 2 young teenagers in tow. Some great lessons on give and take huh.

My point is the unfortunate thing about being fortunate is perhaps you feel a natural right to everything and is hurt and shocked when you do not have it. Calamities, misfortunes, financial struggles, accidents, handicaps are just what you read and watch in the news. They are unreal, they only happen to others, some in faraway land and some closer to home but in another area of town perhaps. And when someone in your "strata" gets windfall from enbloc, someone's kid got into medic school, someone's bonus equals his one year pay, someone made hell of a lot of money from betting on the right stock, (the list is endless), you may feel hey why am I so darn "unlucky" (hello I got masters leh whilst he just got ordinary degree). And then when say some imperfections in life occur, you will feel really shocked it happened to you, for example "I can't believe this can happen to me, my son can not get into the top JCs, or my daughter is anorexic or my wife quits her job due to what she claims to be too stressful (ahem) or the bloody neighbour on the 9th floor blocks the enbloc and now we will probably miss it" and so on. And if one continues to sail on and on and on in a fortunate state of perfect life, one will really be upset when " hell,I have to park my car 50 meters from the entrance".