View Full Version : What you take for granted
ZenFrost
05-22-2007, 01:31 PM
Lots of people take lots of things for granted, but on this site I think the one thing we don't take for granted is our gender. Lately, I've been thinking that people take eating for granted (having my jaw wired shut kinda puts it in perspective) and that got me wondering what else people take for granted. So here's a question for all y'all... what do you take for granted?
I'll go first: hot water, electricity, fresh air, the internet, personal computers, video games, public schools, color photography, synthetic fabrics, C8H10N4O2, dishwashers, refridgerators, laundry machines, cars, tungsten filiments, windows, allergy medicines, antibiotics, milk, barcodes, toothpaste/mouthwash, soap, clocks, pasturization, toilet paper, carpets, universal binary, and those little glow in the dark alien dudes that hand from my bedroom ceiling.
Okay, I'll admit, I spent a good ten minutes on that list.
Dasein9
05-22-2007, 01:39 PM
Medicine. I'd be dead many times over, including right after birth, just 100 years ago.
Dentistry. (Am getting a tooth filled today.) In the old days, people could actually die from needing a root canal.
Fat. Not so long ago, people ate mostly game, and wild game has a lot less fat than domesticated livestock.
Clean water.
Being able to read. Again, not so long ago, no-one would've bothered to teach me.
CaptLex
05-22-2007, 01:40 PM
Yeah, I guess it's just human nature to take things for granted if you never have to think and/or worry about them. For example:
I grew up watching black and white TV, so it took me years to be able to take color TV for granted (which I now do). Same with computers - they were an ugly greenish tint when they first came out in the workplace.
I'm almost to the point of taking my MP3 player for granted, but at first it was, "How did they get all those songs into that little thing?"
When I hear about people without food, clean water, basic healthcare and health insurance, it really brings home that I never have to think about that stuff. Most people take their health for granted until something goes wrong that cannot easily be fixed too.
Lately, I've learned not to take my mobility for granted. I couldn't get around at all for about a week and a half when I busted my knee and it felt like a miracle when I was finally able to do it again - but I never gave it much thought until now.
I have to remember to count my blessings more often.:happy:
Sandra
05-22-2007, 01:47 PM
Hope you don't mind me jumping in here?
Take for granted: clean water, fresh food, a bed to sleep in, medicines got to be a lot more but can't think right now.
Toyah
05-22-2007, 01:58 PM
I think most of take education for granted.
Nowadays unless you are a Scientologist or other weirdos then information is taken for granted.
Sunlight water and air are a kinda given
How about smiles and friendships sometimes these can be taken for granted as can courtesy (wierdos excluded )
I'd say: Internet access, a good computer (I get so upset when the comps at the library are soooooo slow), running hot/cold water, having shelter and clothing, access to information, access to good medical care, the ability to own a pet (though I don't take my pets for granted, I love them very much), and the ability to freely express my opinion.
I'll say though, Zen, that I do not taking food/eating for granted. Years of an eating disorder kinda f's with your relationship with food. I'll put out there that I really envy anyone who can eat what they want and not feel guilty about it later.
Edit: Oh, and did you have to look up the molecular formula for caffeine, or did you just know that one?
ZenFrost
05-22-2007, 04:10 PM
Edit: Oh, and did you have to look up the molecular formula for caffeine, or did you just know that one?
Honestly, I knew that off the top of my head. Ugh, I'm such a nerd. I often misspell caffeine (because the 'i' before 'e' rule doesn't apply and I forget) so I got in the habit of just writing its molecular formula.
Nigella
05-22-2007, 05:01 PM
We accept change to varying degrees depending upon how that change impacts our lives, if it is needed, someone will invent it and it will be accepted.
I dont think we take anything for granted, in one way or another we accept the changes, be they big or small to our way of life, in nearly every aspect of our lives.
i do think i take alot of things for granted but also i do think about those without alot of the time too but i always said to my folks where you are born is a lottery and to be honest i feel blessed and lucky i live in a contry where most things are avalable at good prices and are at hand.
some things on a daiily basis i take for granted
family, frends, money, water, food, a good roof over my head, my car, freedom, space to move, fresh air, tv, phones, internet, modern technology, posseshions i have to many i am lucky to have so much stuff, NHS yes i will include this one because some places have no health sevice at all.
the list could go on forever but you see i dont no what its like to be without and i will admit it too.
happyfish
05-22-2007, 06:06 PM
I think a lot of people take cars for granted, and just the ability to be able to hop into a vehicle and travel places it would take others (say, me) hours to do by bus. (Am not bitter because I have to be someplace in two hours and the transit website isn't working to tell me which bus I need to catch when. argh)
That being said, I definately take public transit for granted. I also take being able to walk in public in the clothes I choose to wear for granted. Being able to practice the religion I choose, food, having non-dial-up internet, freedom of speach, music, hygene, cell phones, television (not that I watch it), and a bunch of other stuff I could list, but haven't quite enough time.
Felix
05-23-2007, 01:58 PM
I probably take for granted most of the normal things that most have said. Can't take cars for granted cos haven't got one. Suppose public transport cos that's all I use so when they are on strike I really miss it.
I think from my female side and as a mother and I think all mothers are capable of doing this. We take it for granted that our children would never leave us or choose to live with the other parent. This is not the reality as I have learned, no matter how much you love them and care for them and do things 100% for them and with them they may and do choose the other parent in a split up. So I have learned never take people for granted cos it don't work. This applies in other areas of life to xx Felix :hugs:
Question Mark
05-23-2007, 03:33 PM
The usual ones everyone else said, and friends and family. I take family for granted because of the financial and food, shelter, and water aspects. Not so much the emotional support aspect.
I take friends for granted in the latter aspect, and also because at a certain point of your life, you can do without family, but if you have no friends you have nothing. When I was younger I was by necessity dependent on family, but I had no friends, and that was miserable enough. So, I do take friendship for granted sometimes, though rarely do I take my closest ones for granted.
jsoto81
05-28-2007, 12:57 AM
hmmm good question.
My family (brother and parents the most), the convience of cars, mobiles, the internet (email included), air conditioning, digital photography, the convience of Apple products, cable TV, microwave food, electricity, netflix (and other things that make my life so easy), basically any technological advancement.
So pretty much everything that makes it possible to not live like a cave man.
Angie G
05-28-2007, 01:47 PM
One thing we must not take for granted is the freedom we enjoy in the U.S.A. meny men and woman payed with there lives for it :hugs:
Angie
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