Daily Prompt: "Poop in His Hand!"

Oh, sorry: I was channeling the scene from the movie “G-Force,” where the mice are chanting “Poop in his hand! Poop in his hand!” which in fact has nothing to do with today’s Daily Prompt. I will still point a bit of the blame for digression towards my friends over there, simply because of where they chose to take us today; such prompts may cause thoughts like mine, above. See for yourself:

Clichés become clichés for a reason. Tell us about the last time a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush for you.

 Right? What do you think about first when someone mentions a bird in the hand? Huh?! Am I alone here?! Is this thing on?!?

Okay, so on to the real topic at hand. One of the meanings provided for this term is “It’s better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing” but I like the one from Wisegeeks a bit better:

The basic warning of this saying is that you must take care not to get too greedy in life. If you are holding a bird in the hand, you have your meal for the evening. You can take that one bird, and be well fed. If instead you let it go to pursue two birds you’ve spied in a bush, you may catch neither, and wind up hungry for the night. This proverb points out that by passing up a sure thing for a more promising possibility, you also run the risk of losing both the sure thing and the promising possibility. (Emphasis, mine)

The part of that explanation that I put in bold is what stood out for me most. As I’ve shared in other posts, my family and I moved to Southern California from Southern New Jersey. According to the most current US Census information, the median household income, 2007-2011 on the city from which we came from was $24,083. The same stat for the city we live in now over the same time period was $40,161. The same stat for the city in which I work was $53,826. Percentages of persons below the poverty level in the same places across the same time periods were  31.4, 28.6, and 18.2 respectively. While my family was blessed to be above those income and poverty rates, I can say that I doubled my income with our move to Southern California. Granted, it is much more expensive to live here than it was in Southern New Jersey so our ability to move up the economic ladder has been just as tough a climb. However, when I hear people complain talk about how “little” we make in this area, I am reminded to not be too greedy in my life. Having the blessings I’ve been given over time causes me to be grateful for the bird currently in my hand.