This post isn't about trying to make my fortunate readers feel guilty about the many ways we are privileged by where and to whom we each are born. Nor are we looking at what the less fortunate around us "deserve" from us.
By celebrating the boost in life that privilege bestows, we can begin to assume the lifelong responsibilities that come along with being gifted at birth. In listening to others' stories, by reading literature and through travel and education, we may learn to see the advantages bestowed upon us. For, to start with, as you are reading my online blog, you are privileged, for you are connected.
The fact that I am a tall, white man born to well-educated parents and that I am in good health is not only highly advantageous for my life prospects, but also carries with it, say I, lifelong responsibility.
First, I recognize my advantages. Second, I find humility. There but for fortune ... This recognition of the boost given to me at birth in our flawed big human tribe could also have me believing (and surely does, at times) that, actually, I'm somewhat "better" than others born lower on the societal totem pole. We all want to believe that the important things in life happen for a reason. Some cultures support the idea of reincarnation. Others tell us that we all are born sinful and it's our job to become clean and saved.
I believe that it is vital to become aware -- in humility and with a sense of wonder -- how very much we've been given. When I traveled through Nepal alone for two months, I saw beautiful, dark-eyed children playing in the dust with toys made of whatever they could find that the grown-ups no longer needed, so empty wooden spools and string with a few sticks became automobiles. Those who are born with few advantages are more likely to see and recognize our human capacity for resourcefulness. Because they must. Yes, these children had runny eyes and likely not enough to eat each day. But when I knelt by them in the dust of the road, those bright eyes smiled and their little hands reached out to share their little cars with me.
Because our ego-bound selves not only see the differences between ourselves and others, but also so easily tend to believe in this supposed separation, our privilege can all too often remove us from the vitality of our existence. That which I see as the responsibility that comes with privilege is not only a stance that I take, but also my heightened ability to respond. Whether that response comes through my giving to another or learning from another or simply sharing space and time with another, I must stay alert and beware of the slippery slope of sloppy thinking that will tempt me to experience others in a "subject/object" mode.
Let us not fear charity. The word may connote a person bending to put alms in a beggar's cup, but it denotes "generous love." Experiencing ourselves as rich in love and health and compassion, we feel connection. We don't descend but ascend to relationship. Let us dedicate ourselves to our one life, giving and receiving as we inhale and exhale.