Privilege

I am a child of privilege. I have lived a charmed life and find myself with the ultimate privilege now, not caring.

People with privilege don't automatically worry about the things that people without that privilege are always aware of and worrying about. I wake up in the morning with a roof over my head and food in the fridge, and I don't worry about next month's rent or tomorrow's meal. Simply living successfully is, in and of itself, a privilege and often, the result of privilege.

So I'm not following the current political fiasco that passes for our democracy. But I have the luxury of not caring. As I was taught many years ago, it really doesn't matter who wins the election because I'll still have to wake up the next day and go to work. I'm solidly middle class so I don't need a candidate who appeals to the blue collar, or one who looks out for the super rich. I have money in diversified holdings so I don't have to worry too much about my future because I have had the privilege of being able to save and plan.

I'm past middle age but not (quite yet) of retirment age, living in a first world country, so I don't really care about the diseases that affect the "old people" or the ones that are sweeping through the third world. I have access to and means to afford medical treatment without thinking about it. I can just focus on my work, or my hobbies or whatever is pressing beyond the kinds of things that so many others have to worry about. That's privilege.

Privilege isn't something I'm about to apologize for. It isn't good, or bad. It simply is a way of labeling who I am and where I am. There is privilege to living in the NYC area. Maybe there is a parallel privilege to living in a small town in Idaho, or living on a farm. Each one has the luxury of not worrying about something that I worry about.

Privilege isn't a dirty word. There is such a thing as "white privilege" and something called "black privilege." They are different and have different implications in different situations. That's not a bad thing to say -- it is a fact. It just so happens that "privilege" is a lot more granular than that, though, and, sadly, people hide behind these high level abstractions and ignore the variables and details that help us connect with others and identify the divisions between us.

So, yes -- I have privilege. Everything about me that makes me me is a function of that privilege and is, in return, a privilege. And other people have other privileges that I lack and that should not cause jealousy or anger. It should help us see through the eyes of others, recognizing our own privileges and casting our imaginings into contexts where those privileges are stripped away. Imagine you are at an amusement park and your child has just found out that he or she is too short to ride a ride. Height is a privilege: it allows certain people not to have to worry about their being allowed to ride the ride safely. But instead of poo-pooing the child's reaction to the situation, empathize. What would it be like not to have height? How would I feel? Would that feeling be justified, or assuaged by someone telling me to forget about it?

There is so much we do on the daily which we don't have to think about. Every single one of those instances is an expression of some sort of privilege. And maybe, some of us have (in a given scenario) more privileges which come into play, or ones that impact more aspects of our lives. But we can't turn that off. We can simply work to be more aware of it and be honest about its impact on our lives.