Privilege

Last week I had a conversation with a woman at the park who is around my age (I'm guessing) and again, has left me thinking non-stop about her. She has three sons, the oldest in high school and the youngest starting kindergarten, who recently moved from the south side of Chicago after a tragedy that happened. She described her life in Chicago and didn't talk about the tragedy, but I could kind of put together the pieces and figure out what caliber of tragedy took place.

We talked for a good bit while our boys played together and she really opened up to me about her old job that she recently quit and how there were major discrepancies with her pay, even though the store kept promoting her. She went on and on of all the other things in her life that were hard to get, especially with the economy being a bit of a challenge for someone like her to make ends meet.

This conversation reminded me of so many that I've had while living in DC. I was quickly reminded of ALL the factors that fell into place for me that got me to where I am now-- (just as a quick place to start) both of my parents graduated from college/grad school, they were able to provide multiple learning opportunities for us and take time to be with us everyday (and all summer long, to boot!), they paid for our college education, etc, etc, etc, ... I didn't have to lift a finger (except for getting good grades) and it somehow feels unfair.

It's pretty much inevitable that I felt sort of like a schmuck after saying good-bye to this woman and heading home to my nice new house, with a husband waiting for me and Ben after coming home from a day of work, and thinking about the supper I was going to make that night. Our lives would be a dream come true to so many people, even though we don't consider ourselves living "high on the hog." It's humbling to remind ourselves of this.

This woman was heading home to her two older boys and getting excited about school starting, especially the youngest starting all-day kindergarten so she didn't have to worry about daycare costs. She's also searching for a new job and trying to balance her life with spending time with her boys and not working the day away, coming home at midnight every night. She knows what she needs to provide for her boys to have a healthy life, but she can't quite get there.

I think this encounter was the kick-in-the-pants that I needed to get myself involved with volunteering again. To be the listening ear, to be an advocate, to be encouraging, to help push on, to be hopeful, ...