A few weeks ago, just after a somewhat large family gathering and just before another, larger one the next day, we faced a problem. We had too much food to fit into the two refrigerators in the house. Both were simply chock full. As we stood there, thinking of solutions to the dilemma, which included digging out coolers from the summer in order to store food outside overnight, or plugging in the third refrigerator in the garage, my brother made a very valid point.
"This is a first-world problem," he said.
And we all stopped for a moment to think about that.
We had too much food to fit into our storage areas. That was our problem. It's a problem that many others, in third- and even second-world countries would likely love to have.
With that in perspective, instead of getting frustrated by the lack of storage space, we slowly but surely found places for everything, our issue in its proper perspective.
The idea of "first-world problems" entered my head again, just the other day, when discussing what to buy some of the children in the family for Christmas.
"Don't get them anything," one of my siblings instructed me regarding her two sons. "They get so much."
Too much.
It really is a terribly first-world problem.
Our children have too many toys. Our closets are too full because of all the clothes we have. Houses are getting bigger in order to store all of our possessions. And many of us have too much to eat.
In fact, we have so much to eat that ads for different diets, weight-loss centres and exercise equipment dominate both television and radio advertising on a daily basis.
There's no doubt that obesity is a serious concern in our society. However, one of those starving children we hear about in other television commercials would likely trade their problems for ours in a heartbeat.
They would likely rather deal with the crowds during holiday shopping than struggle to find clean drinking water every day. They would probably love to get something, anything to play with, or something new to wear, and wouldn't complain if it wasn't a brand name, or exactly what they wanted.
We should keep that in mind this holiday season, as we rush around, doing our shopping. It just might make that long line at the till easier to bear. It may make that gift you got, that wasn't quite what you asked for, something to treasure, rather than complain about.
Yes, we have problems here. There's no denying that. We point out quite a few in this space every week.
But our problems, when held up in comparison to others around the world, aren't that bad. We're not dealing with the aftermath of war. We're not trying to keep alive in a country ravaged by a cholera outbreak. We don't have to watch our mothers and siblings die at home because of a lack of medical treatment and knowledge in our home country to treat diseases already eradicated in other parts of the world.
And even though there are many of us who struggle through the holiday season, trying to make ends meet while making the time special, when put in perspective, our lives here are pretty darn awesome.
And our problems are definitely first-world.
That's something to be grateful for, especially at this time of year.
