There’s an interesting psychological phenomenon in humans to need something greater than ourselves to anchor our lives and bring purpose. Is there a state in which just the act of existing can be enough for a person to live their life with purpose and fulfillment? Can one simply be a good and happy person without need for this anchor?
Privilege is a thing that I have in abundance. As a white male there’s very little that the vast majority of our society will not allow me to do—at least in moderation. If I persecute a people group, or sexually harass a woman, or go on a killing spree the news will largely defend me or at worst point to the video games I play as the reason behind my actions. Maybe they’ll bring up my mental health issues, but eventually the spin would be what a kind person I was. No one would ever believe I could do such a thing. Meanwhile if a person of color (POC) did these things the very smallest details of their lives would be blown out of proportion to paint them in the most negative and inhuman light possible.
That’s the extreme 15-minutes of fame version though. There’s so many smaller ways that I benefit from an enormous amount of privilege.
I’m sitting down to breakfast as I write this. Doing so at the table that Danielle and I bought after we got engaged. Facebook let me know this morning that we bought this table seven years ago today. They did that by bringing up a post from Danielle where she nervously exclaimed that she’d just bought the table with me and how big of a commitment that was. In the background the DDF(S) playlist—probably should just rename that to DDS—is “blaring” out the songs that remind me of her.
You’ll notice Danielle has not been tagged into this post. This was done to keep her from being dragged into something that might be too emotional at this time. Please don’t bring it to her attention as it is public so that she can see it if she wants to. That’s not to say that my posts are hidden from her, just that her Facebook friends are curated by her and she may decide to remove me one day.
In front of me, while sitting at the “commitment table”, are