Fear and Privilege

It's been a long road trip. One of the things I am enjoying about it is that it is helping me to gain a clarity of purpose moving forward.

One of the things I had to address when I started this was fear. Fear of washing my hair in a public restroom. Fear of sleeping ion a public place. Fear of criticism, fear of judgment, and probably a whole list of other fears that I hadn't thought of.

It's amazing how quickly some of those fade in light of need. As the cold water splashed soothingly on my sun baked head last night, I reflected on this, and how some of my actions going forward would be directed specifically at my fear.

The driving force, however, is privilege. There's a lot of PC talk about "white privilege", "male privilege", etc, and while I still don't like the way the term is appropriated, I do understand it. But they only scratch the surface. Basically, if you're born in America, you likely own some sort of privilege. The Bill of Rights, for instance. Guantanamo Bay showed us that what we've long believed to be "rights" are actually a set of privileges, revocable to those we deem "the enemy". And if you're reading this from any place other than a public library computer, I guarantee you enjoy a high level of privilege (even access to the public library computers, largely unfiltered, could be construed a privilege).

As I have reflected on this, I have decided that the face of every homeless man, woman and child stands as an indictment against me, both on my faith and my privilege. The face of every refugee in every war torn country stands as silent witness against my silence, my complacency in the face of injustice. The hungry, the imprisoned, the widowless and orphans all forge the chains I wear like a modern Jacob Marley. And it is my job to be about the business of rectifying that, not about the business of building my perfect comfort and security.

This afternoon, I am going to go home. I'm going to rest. I'm going to spend some time with my family. But in the fog and confusion of waking up by the roadside for several days in a row, I have discovered something: I'm in the wrong business.