Unaware of Our Blessings

Yesterday, I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first, second, and third time. It's a good movie. The story is great, the heroes are inspiring, and the music alternates between epic and entertaining. Plus, there are probably at least a dozen blogworthy quotes and moments from the movie, including "Who is the Man?" a question raised in the introduction, which I blogged about on November 6, 2014. This morning, I'd like to blog about Quasimodo's song, "Out There," and about the blessings we have that we tend to take for granted.

Having spent his whole life cooped up in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo sang about how much he'd love to just walk the streets, "Out there, where they all live unaware [of] what I'd give, what I'd dare, just to live one day out there." This made me think of how the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I could easily imagine a homeless street urchin looking at the great cathedral, wishing that he had such a place to call his home. Sure enough, later in the movie, the gypsy Esmeralda  remarks on how lucky Quasimodo is to have so much space to himself.

I wonder what blessings we enjoy that we take for granted. I've never been starving or homeless. I've never been locked up or afraid for my life. I've never even gone without electricity or plumbing except for briefly, for fun. I am incredibly lucky and very blessed, but how much do I really appreciate my blessings? One thing I've been meaning to blog about for weeks now is that we have no idea how blessed we really are. As Americans, we enjoy religious freedom, relative safety, and a very high standard of living. Here, we have most of the blessings that many people in the world can only dream of. Yet, do any of us really know how lucky we are?

In his song, Quasimodo says "If I was in their skin, I'd treasure ev'ry instant," but would he? If he were raised with the freedom he craves, but still with the deformity he was born with, I think he might crave the privacy his caretaker forced on him, away from those who would cruelly mock him. If he had freedom and no deformity, he'd have other troubles and concerns, as we all do.

I think that all of us live a large portion of our lives completely unaware of the many great blessings we have. Let's try to fix that. Let's try to be aware of, and grateful for, our many blessings, rather than wishing we had the blessings enjoyed by others. There are many people who'd consider themselves lucky if they could live in our shoes. Perhaps we should consider how blessed we are rather than wishing we were even more richly blessed.