Ephemeral

Today I spent the day in an office that at first had no electrical power, elevator or heat, all due to some poor devil that fell asleep while pumping heating oil to a nearby building. The oil spilled to an electrical grid which in turn had a massive surge provoking an explosion in our office's basement. Apparently almost simultaneously the water main burst due to the explosion, which most likely is what saved the building from catching fire. All is fine, we have electricity, heat will be back at some point tomorrow, and all systems are running. Life goes on as usual but for one thing: It made me realize, yet again, how fragile the balance of life can be. If the water main had not exploded the building would have gone up in flames, and today would have found me looking through the wanted ads instead of writing this blog.
The funny thing is that we have, more often than not, found ourselves in the office working under less than desirable conditions. There have been water problems, where the trips to the bathroom became an expedition to the nearest McDonald's or an excuse to wander into Barnes & Noble; heating problems where everyone could be seen in their outerwear not knowing if they were coming, going or just sitting at their desks, computer problems, telephone problems, you name it we've had it. But today people, although with their coats, hats and scarfs on, were all repeating the same credo: "I'm just glad I have a job to come to".
It made me realize that although we complain because we're not happy, it is entirely our choice, but once that choice is threatened things somehow look different. One thing is to stay in a place that you're not entirely satisfied with, another is to be forced to leave that situation, as unhappy as it was making you.
Do we always have to be reminded that things could be worse in order to appreciate what we have? Do we have to be forced into a situation in order to actually go for it? Human beings are strange creatures, we love to complain but take no pro-active decisions to change whatever it is that is making us unhappy. Only when we have no other choice one of two things happen: either we realize that whatever we had wasn't that bad after all, or we find ourselves forced to do that which could make us happier but would have never done otherwise...
I smell of smoke and I am tired, and so today I promise that I will not complain about the heat at home not being adequate (at least I have heat) and will appreciate that I have a job that I can go to every day... until I have to go again to McDonald's to powder my nose...