Life Issues – Heads You Lose
Rich or poor, what difference does it make to the man? Apart from the obvious things like being able to afford to buy things as opposed to not being able to.
But is the rich man better than the poor man or vice versa?
In Heads You Lose, Jess treats every man equally. He does a good job as a servant and he does it with dignity, pride and integrity. However he soon finds that not all of his co-workers share his work ethic and he is disappointed in them.
On the other hand the person that Jess thought would cause trouble and have no morals or ethics turned out to be just the opposite when push came to shove. Philipe was a rich man but could not allow Jess to lose his own life through trying to protect his master’s son.
People in France during the time of the Revolution believed that there should be equality for all men. That the rich should be beheaded if they did not believe so and did not gladly distribute their wealth among others.
Whilst it is fair to say that there were then and are now many rich people who abuse their power and think that they can do anything they want simply because they can pay for it, there are many more who help others through their money.
There are a lot of anonymous charitable acts made by those with money and certainly it must be a very small percentage of wealthy people who misuse their position in society.
By the same token there are many poor men who do not have a sense of what is right and rather tan try to better themselves they think that the world owes them a favour and do as little as they can to get by in life, surviving on handouts or state benefits. But there are many more poor people that share what hey have with others less fortunate and try to make a difference to their lives through hard work and determination.
Most people want to better themselves and to have enough money not to have to think about where the next meal is coming from.
The irony is that although there are some self-made men out there, chances are that instead of being congratulated they are often the subject of jealousy and are tarred with the same brush as all the other rich people out there.
What matters in all this must surely be what kind of person you are.
You should not be treated any differently simply because you are dressed in Armani or second hand. The important thing is that you rise and fall on your own merits and that you are treated equally as a human being and not judged on what is in your wallet!
Jess and Philipe both learnt this. Although Jess was a poor servant he was a wise, intelligent and caring person and Philipe changed his way of thinking because his life was literally saved by this amazing young man.
Maybe we should all sit back and think about what it is that is truly important in our lives – to be able to drive a new model car every year or to be admired and respected by those in your circle.
The choice is yours. Only you can make it – but it is you that has to live with it.