The quote is "I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet."

Now, when I have no shoes, I'll be upset

If I see someone with no feet, I'm still wanting my shoes

Because if we must care for ourselves before we should care for others,

Then I'm still wanting shoes

Because even though this man has no feet,

I'm still shoeless

He has no feet for shoes to go when he needs,

But mine are cold

And I'm not saying that I don't care about this man,

But I must care for myself, too

Yeah, I can see how that sounds selfish,

But if we expect ourselves to be capable enough to take care and treat others,

We must be okay with ourselves

 

Because when I'm at my low,

There will always be someone who has it worse

So when someone says "at least it's not worse than it already is"

I'm not thinking about how worse it could get,

I'm thinking about how bad it is now

Because even though it could get harder,

This is still bad for me

Knowing of the greatness of much worse possibilities does not exempt the now

 

So when a kid doesn't eat their food because they don't want to,

Using the phrase, "there are starving children" doesn't help feed the hungry  

When the kid doesn't eat, the children are starving

When the kid does eat, the children are still starving

 

If we keep on constantly telling our children that you must respect yourself so you can have it for your teachers, parents, friends, and just about anyone who deserves it,

Then why give them the guilt trip of them having it good when all we want for our kids is exactly that

So when they have it good,

Their complaints should be something we can handle on our own without mentioning the ones who don't have it good

 

So if I complain that my phone is missing,

Don't say "at least you had a phone"

Because my phone will still be missing and everyone who doesn't have a phone will still be without one

What's bad for me will be different than what's bad for someone else,

And when I said this to my friend,

she said she disagrees because she's been to the point where she had no shoes or a house or a phone and she's found it to be easier to be thankful for what she has

 

But what I mean is that when a person complains about their mother taking the car keys,

telling them that they’re lucky that their mom bought them a car doesn't make them appreciate it

and talking about how some people are homeless doesn't make them grateful

You have to let the person learn this lesson on their own so that they can grow as a more appreciative person and realize that these things that are our wants are just little luxuries

 

So that when they get these things back or when we'll have kids to give these simple pleasures to,

We can learn and then teach thanks to give to the little pieces of our lives that we do and don't need