#firstworldproblems

I'm late posting. Sorry, fan(s). My only excuse is life circumstances have combined to make me not care about a whole lot lately. But I do want to get this posted.

Our pastor concluded his 4-week sermon series on stewardship. He began his sermon this past Sunday by saying a friend of his had tweeted how he went to Starbucks because they had better coffee and Dunkin' Donuts because they had better donuts. He bemoaned having to go two places, but then made it all tongue-in-cheek by adding the hash tag #firstworldproblems.

So Pastor Mark looked that up, and came upon a number posts tagged that way. One concerned a man who said some pixels had failed on his iPhone. It seems that another had to do with difficulty of syncing multiple mobile devices. Mark gave us eight to ten equally humorous problems tagged as #firstworldproblems.

First World would refer to the developed, non-communist world. The wealthy countries, with America at the top. As he had said the week before, an annual income of $50,000 puts you in the wealthiest 1 percent of the world. And, he said, consider that we work five days a week and earn sufficient money to live seven days a week. And often it's only one person in a family who has to work those seven days.

So some of the problems we have in America are so inconsequential that they aren't really problems at all. Like the people I have to sit behind at the traffic light at Walton & 28th Street, who don't realize they have a lane to turn left into. They just have to move out. Those turning right from the opposite direction have their own lane. I fume about it, but what I really have is a #firstworldproblem. I have a good vehicle. The roads are well built and maintained. The driver are, if timid, careful. After driving in Saudi Arabia I certainly have nothing to complain about.

So, henceforth I'll try to consider that the little things that beset me are really #firstworldproblems, and I'd better not complain.