Bugburgers, Yummy!

One aspect of perspective is appreciating what you have rather than always longing for more.  A good sense of perspective helps in many ways.  It reduces anxiety by helping you resist the impulse to spend, a habit that’s good for your financial security.  It reduces anxiety by taking away the fear of having to keep up with or impress the neighbors, which is also good for your financial security.  It increases happiness by promoting satisfaction with where you are instead of dissatisfaction about where you wish you were.

Did you ever wake up in the morning feeling terrible?  You have a cold or the flu.  Everything hurts; everything feels stuffy or runny or sore.  You are just miserable.  This happens to everyone at one time or another.  How often though, do you wake up in the morning thinking, “Wow, I’m so glad I’m not sick”?  We tend not to appreciate when we are not sick or not sore.  We take this condition of good health for granted.  We take a lot for granted.

I was reminded of perspective by this article on the National Geographic site.  Last Monday the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a report on world hunger and food security promoting the idea that insects become a larger part of everyone’s diet.  There are 1,900 edible insect species on Earth.  The report concludes:  “The case needs to be made to consumers that eating insects is not only good for their health, it is good for the planet.”  Insects have a high nutritional value, require fewer resources and convert feed into food more efficiently than cows or pigs.  “In fact, some two billion people eat a wide variety of insects regularly, both cooked and raw.”

Personally, I don’t think I’m quite ready for this yet.  The news, though, gives me additional perspective about how lucky I am.  I’m more appreciative of what I have and especially happy that I’m not having grasshopper casserole for dinner – at least not tonight.