Carol H Tucker Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
Now and then, I wander into the realm of theology, and as the year winds to a close, one of the things I have been pondering is privilege. The Mystery of Providenceby John Flavel [a Puritan and English Presbyterian clergyman] was published back in the 17th century. According to a blog that I read [http://www.challies.com], what he is trying to accomplish is get his readers to acknowledge the privileges that were theirs simply because of the time and place in which they were born.
It made me stop and think, what privileges do I enjoy because I was born here and now? Because I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1950? My first thought: I was born in a country that mandated public education, in a time when it was enjoying unparalleled prosperity, when science and technology were just starting to take off. My second thought was about economics. My mother, as many mothers did back then, was a homemaker. My father was a steelworker and the only experience we had with unemployment was when the union called a strike. I didn’t know what it was like being hungry, I didn’t have to deal with poor hygiene or lack of medical and dental care, I didn’t have to worry about not having shelter or clothing, I didn’t have to work instead of go to school as a child – which makes me pretty rich compared to most of the world, neh?
I once explained to the President/CEO of C&F, that one reason he was in the position he was in was because he started at a higher rung on the social ladder. I explained that if you have X amount of KSA, it will take you Y distance and it just made sense to me that if you start higher, you will end up higher. He agreed, saying if his mother had stayed with the coal miner who was his father rather than divorcing and going back to live with his grandfather who was a university president, his life course would’ve been much different. Looking back on that conversation, I was explaining the concept of class/economic privilege back around 1990!
But unlike the Calvinists, I don’t believe that the reason I have been given the blessings I received at birth are due to my innate goodness or godliness. Instead I believe that I lucked out. The society I was born into stands on the shoulders of many people from the past, all the way back to and including that brilliant caveman who figured out that cooking food on a fire was a good idea. So no, I don’t believe that the wealthy and upper class folks “deserve” their bounty any more than I do. For some they earned it through work and/or innovation, but I would argue that same KSA wouldn’t have worked out for them nearly as well if they hadn’t just plain lucked out when they were born. Neither they, nor I, are in any way morally superior to a refugee or a homeless person or convict or addict or anyone else. Neither they, nor I, have the right to sit in judgment of them – we haven’t walked in their shoes and can’t imagine the travails of their lives.
Whenever I see the pictures of mayhem, of poverty, of want, of primitive living, the first thought that comes to my mind is not how those people aren’t trying hard enough. Instead I think, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”. And a part of me is a little selfishly relieved that things have turned out the way that they have and another part of me is ashamed that I haven’t done more in my life to make things better for everyone.
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