Sunday, April 20, 2008

Entitlement

Remember that one time I had a blog? Yeah... that was a good time.

I'm working on learning a little bit of Game Maker right now (search it on Google... I don't feel like linking...) It's good times.

As I was sitting outside in the beautiful sun today, I was watching some bugs move around on the grass. I figured maybe it looked fun. Maybe I should make a gameplay experiment about jumping around on different sized platforms, just to see if I can make it fun.

Then I remembered: I want to be a game designer and I should probably learn and make some...

Church was good this morning. We've been going through 2 Chronicles something or other: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will hear their land." Today was "turn from their wicked ways." Good times.

Jason said something this morning that resonated a bit with me, though, that I'll share here. In talking about sin and specifically some things in the congregation, he mentioned that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." But how much moreso our bodies act? What is the heart behind my actions? (A question that has been plaguing me for some time...)

I guess lately, I've had a bit of an entitlement attitude. I've been expecting life to go my way without any hard work. I have not been learning how to design video games, I have not been spending time outside of my schoolwork writing or concepting. I only applied at a few places to work this summer - no wonder I'm stuck at a movie theater working weekends!

If I feel entitled now and act this way now, how much more so will I act when I have a college degree? In my observation, jobs don't come from hard work. I've always been taught that "It's not what you know, it's who you know." It's not how hard you work, it's knowing people that will give you a job anyway. That's not how the world is going to work out of college. We don't know anyone (at least, I don't). I need to kick this entitled attitude right in the rear now.

Another thought I had in church: In America, we feel entitled, like it is our right to freedom, our right to riches, our right to upper-middle class subdivisions, an SUV, and 2.5 children. This is exactly the attitude that our forefathers fought against! We feel like we deserve what we get - they worked hard to get it. There are many days that I wish I was more like generations past in work ethic and attitude.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. (These things are always longer when I look at them than when I type them...)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, at least you get responses to your posts. *Pokes at you* Hrm... I forgot to call you last night. Again.

Yeah... I've felt that sometimes too. Which is weird, because I was never that way before now. I always felt that I got what I deserved or (didn't) work to get.

We do have the right to life, liberty, and happiness, but we have to work for it too. We have the right to work for those things.

~*~ Rad

Anonymous said...

On your thought about entitledment in America, it reminded me of a conversation I recently had with Dr. Crompton. In America we all feel entitled to (there is a muskrat outside the window)the right to privacy of our grades. Apparently in England grades get posted for everyone to see, which he belives makes them better students (which they very well may be), and American students lazier in general. I wonder what school would be like if teachers got to post our grades.Anywhoo thoughts from Crompton.
-becky

Maverick said...

I should comment. Because that's what I do... even though I should be sleeping.

I think it's especially difficult when we want what our passion is. I've had the thought a couple of times "I'm decent at theatre... I won't have to try very hard to make it" which is completely pompous and pretentious of me.

How are we supposed to think of our passions as something we have to work for or towards? How are we supposed to balance that? (those are NOT rhetorical questions...)

Michael said...

you added the tag "nothing of substance" one has been inclined to ask why for a very long time.