Who Will Improve Your Lot?

Years ago, in Monterey, California, a crisis arose. Monterey had become a paradise for pelicans. After cleaning their fish, the local fishermen would throw the pelicans the entrails. The birds soon became fat and lazy. Eventually, a new market was found that could use the entrails commercially. The pelicans no longer had a free meal. Yet, the pelicans made no effort to fish for themselves. They just waited, and waited, for the handouts that didn't come. Many starved to death. They seemed to have forgotten how to fish for themselves. The opposite approach was taken by an elderly woman waiting for a bus. She was crippled with rheumatism and loaded down with packages. As the bus door opened, a man offered her a helping hand. The woman smiled and shook her head. "I'd best manage alone," she said. "If I get help today, I'll want it tomorrow." George Bernard Shaw once noted, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them." None will improve your lot, if you yourselves do not. Shanda