What You Deserve

     “All I want is what I have coming to me, all I want is my fair share.” - Lucy, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

     “Deserve” is a funny word to me. I can think of few instances where it actually makes sense. My favorite is when someone is describing a couple that particularly irks them, and says, “They deserve each other.”

     Boom.

     Respect and kindness are the only things to which I can find everyone entitled. But once you get more specific, the moral waters seem murky to me.

     Who really deserves a better house? Who deserves a Caribbean vacation? Who deserves to sleep in just a little bit longer?

     Why is it that just because you’ve flown in a plane more often than other people, you’ve earned the privilege of flying more in that plane?

     A practice of gratitude and attention to one’s breath seem suitable antidotes to much of the strife surrounding our constant desires for more.

     But come Christmas, I must stand with Lucy. All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.