The Global Village

From Coach Tressel's book, THE WINNER'S MANUAL:

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely one hundred people, with all the existing human rations remaining the same, the village would include..
60 Asians
12 Europeans
15 from the Western Hemisphere (9 Latin Americans, 5 North Americans, and 1 Oceanian), and 13 Africans.

Of those one hundred people…
50 would be female
50 would be male
80 would be nonwhite
20 would be white
67 would be non-Christian
33 would be Christian
20 would earn 89 percent of wealth
25 would live in substandard housing
17 would be unable to read
13 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would die within the year
2 would give birth within the year
2 would have a college education, and
4 would own a computer

From there, it’s only a short jump to apply the same principle to our everyday lives. Sure, the guy at the next locker has a better car, or he’s a starter on the team, or there are scouts looking at him; but in the big picture we are all blessed, and we need to recognize that and let it work its way into our lives

To determine whether people are living a grateful life, we can look in the classroom or the home or wherever they spend their time. If they’re not committed to becoming the best students in the classroom of the best sons or daughters at home, that’s a huge warning sing. I think the person who has a right attitude is able to say, “Man, am I lucky to be here! I need to study- I really don’t like this class, but I’m so thankful I’m here that I’m going to study hard. Practice is hard, but I’m going to take advantage of every opportunity I have.” Constant reminders of how fortunate we are can help us to keep things in proper perspective.