Privilege

I was born a middle class white, male, straight, Christian. These are all advantageous traits to have in our culture and I have them all by happenstance of to whom I was born and when.

And yes, I was born straight. I don't recall ever deciding to be attracted to girls, it just happened. And yes, I was born a Christian. My parents took me to church when I was a child. Sure, I have made my own decisions about what to believe about God and the church, but I can't say that I would have had the privilege to question, challenge, and ultimately accept my beliefs if I didn't have the foundation that my family provided. Again, this is just by sheer happenstance of birth.

When I was born and to whom have dictated so much of my life. There was a time, shortly after my oldest son was born, that I was out of work. I had just changed jobs and that change didn't work out. It took a few months for me to find other employment. During that time my parents took care of us. Any bills we couldn't pay they did. They owned our house and so we just stopped paying rent. They took care of it. Anything we needed they provided. I shudder to think about what might have been if we didn't have them as our safety net. And that safety net,, again, was just by sheer happenstance of birth.

Any hunger I have felt has been voluntary. I've fasted before. It was my privilege to do so. I've been on diets. It was my privilege to do so. For me, to want for something is to have to save up to buy what I want for a little bit instead of just putting it on a credit card. We're "tightening our belts" with our budget a bit right now. That's our privilege, as well. I actually am a bit worried about how my children are going to react to us cutting cable television and possibly cutting back some on our bandwidth with our broadband internet. I'm worried if they'll be upset if they can't watch Johnny Test whenever it comes on (which, incidentally, seems like about every half hour) or if they'll be upset if the flash content of whatever website they're on takes a little longer to load. This is my privilege.

It was recently my privilege to decide to save money and get more exercise by biking to work every day. It has also been my privilege to drive when the weather hasn't been to my liking. I don't worry about where we'll sleep or what we'll eat or where we'll get our next fix of whatever I'm addicted to. I just worry that we'll be adequately entertained and comfortable enough.

If I take careful inventory of everything about me that I would consider virtuous, I am afraid that everything I find would be a direct result of sheer happenstance of birth.