While chowing down some fried rice, I was busy watching poetry in action when my mother told me to turn off 'that wrestling trash.' Then I pondered something: how many people are missing out on this stuff? Then I pondered something else: how many people don't watch it because they don't have a TV? A week later, I was wolfing down some yogurt while listening to George W. Bush mispronounce a certain somebody's name along the lines of Slobodan Mi-LAA-se-VICK, and then another question popped in my mind: how many people are interested in or actually care what he's talking about? A few seconds after that, I thought about those who did care about democracy, freedom, rights, and having their voice heard, but could do nothing about it ... Just like that, the obvious epiphany popped into my head. We as a society take just about everything in life for granted. Whether it be our family, our resources, or our health, everything is expected to come to us, and if it doesn't, then we complain that life just isn't fair.
             When contemplating taking things for granted, one might first think of the family. In ancient times, the basic unit of Roman society was the family. Even today, most issues center around "Who's taking me to school?" and "Why did you scratch your older brother?" My daddy and mommy always tell me that everything in their lives is for my sisters and I. They always say, "When we die, we won't be taking all this stuff with us into our graves." I could never picture anything but my mom sacrificing her entire life, her entire working career just to bring us up correctly. I could never picture anything but my mom always at home ready to cook me some nice, hot chicken – you know, the kind where the outside is all nice and crispy and the inside is all tender and juicy. Only 4 days in my entire school career did I ever buy lunch – t...