Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Illusion of Scarcity

I was walking on the beach one day when a very loud squawking overhead grabbed my attention.  I looked up to see a small bird with a fish dangling from its mouth, being chased by a flock of seagulls.  The chase continued on and on for some time – with the bird being pursued engaging in some amazingly quick flight patterns to outmaneuver the other birds.  I thought why doesn’t the bird just eat the fish, thereby ending the chase?  Is the bird so focused on frenetic flying that it can’t enjoy the catch?  More importantly I pondered – in the time the other birds spent chasing, they could have devoted that energy into finding their own meal.  How often do we want someone else to do the work for us?  How frequently do we long for what someone else has and expend more time and energy into being jealous and wanting to take it away from them – when there is a whole world of goodies – abundance everywhere, available for each of us if we recognize it?  Technically, there is plenty of everything for everyone, particularly because not everybody wants and needs the same thing.  Too often we want to ride on the coattails of someone else’s talent, someone else’s money, their friends, their accomplishments – when we have talents and abilities of our own to uncover, discover, and put into action.