From Slavery to the Good Life

There is a T.V. ad for a website to trace your ancestry and the spokesman claims he found his ancestor who had been a slave who became a businessman before he died. Now, whether or not this spokesman is telling the truth or just acting out a part, the fact is that many slaves did prosper during their lifetimes.

If I was the great granddaughter of someone who had doggedly dragged themselves up from slavery to prosperity, I would be so darned proud of them. And, if I had the misfortune to be enslaved, I would be so proud of any of my progeny who prospered.

Slavery has always been a shameful part of our history because it completely goes against the concept of how human beings should behave. The fact that it has remained shameful tells us just how unacceptable it was to the vast majority of the people. And I'm referring to the white population! If the white population as a whole had agreed with enslaving blacks, it would still be occurring. It was by far the intervention of decent white people that black slaves were freed and allowed to rise or fall by their own hand.

I can't help but admire the tenacity of the freed slaves who did go on to educate themselves and live better lives. They elevated their own status and then provided for their children and grandchildren with the fruits of their labor. They, and the white population which stood behind them, offered a better life for their offspring than they probably would have had in Africa. Many fell by the wayside and continued to lead downtrodden lives but many took advantage of what was offered and went on to be successful in whatever they chose.

When I think of what the strongest impetus was for either failing or succeeding, it had to be pride. Without pride, you can't believe in yourself and those slaves who did succeed are living proof that it doesn't matter what you came from, if your have pride in yourself, you will succeed in life.

Succeeding doesn't mean gaining riches, it means gaining satisfaction with the way your life is turning out. It means being happy and content with your status quo.

I'm thinking right now of the children who committed suicide because bullies beat down their self esteem and made them lose pride and confidence in themselves. If only someone had been able to instill confidence in those poor souls, no bully could have affected them. We need to remind our children that the bullies are really the weak and pitiful ones because they can only feel good about themselves if they make someone else miserable.

Pride is a catalyst to success, whether in business or lifestyle. Pride means that you will never give up making a good life for yourself. Pride gives you strength to persevere.

So be proud of yourself! And, to the bullies, if you had any pride in yourselves you wouldn't be bullying.