Privilege has its disadvantages. Running out of
deodorant, oh my! A pesky fly in one’s 2,500 sq ft domain, dang it all! The new
brakes slightly squealing on the brand new sports car; better take the SUV. And
then, to top it off, there's a leaky shower in the tenant's condo, over 1000
miles away, so one may as well fly there and go oversee the expensive
renovation. And what of, back at home, running out of skim milk, and 2% milk
for the coffee, and.... Well, ain't I got problems!
Meantime, I gloss over the predicament of the
ever ubiquitous refugees. They slide into my consciousness as I lie back on my
comfy-couch. My annual donations to World Vision suffices, surely? (How much
more do they want?) Yet the images of the fly-besieged children provokes. And
then there's The News with its interminable offerings of bad,
"bigley-bad" news, ‘breaking news’, and its raw displays of mankind's
impoverished condition.
The disparity between what's over there and what
is here is very apparent. It is galling. Life is indeed unfair. Particularly to
those whose familial and geographic containment is imposed from birth. How
does the one fly, of all flies, make its way away from the usual existence that
is its lot into the protected space of a plethora of availability? Within the closed
up windows and walls of my domain there is food and crumbs and almost invisible
treasures for it. For four days it has flitted about, distracting me, the God
who lives there, sufficient that, on the fifth day, it got exterminated,
killed, done-away-with. (And the Zoroastrian in me, who decided its fate,
having done so, did think, 'Would the Master not have set it free?') But to do
so would be to allow it to tell all its family (and their families) of the
great feast and spoils available if only they would bide their time, await the
right moment, and then besiege the briefly opened patio door! They breed!
Did we not do the same to continents? Did
Colonialism not invade countries and spaces and overwhelm people and abrogate
unto itself rights and expectations? Flags were replaced. Gods were replaced.
And now (as one sees the vast amount of foreigners in-cringing on what used to
be the familiar,) cultures, rather than being adopted, are being replaced.
Gibberish! No wonder there are rising rates of xenophobia, of 'resurfacing'
racism, of discord and protest and brutality. Or is it just that we are now nearly
eight billion; flies squabbling over earth’s rotting corpse?
Ugly imagery abounds. That's the news. Yet
sometimes, when I drive about in 'the wife's' new sports car (or even when in
my usual SUV,) it is with a delightful surprise that I see so very many
manicured lawns and beautiful gardens and posh mansions and town streets full
of shopping people. Amazing that the world still is on its axis, at least, from
my point of view. I do not see evidence of the things The News talks about.
Well, except that there are indeed a lot more foreigners to observe, in crowded
places, indeed. But they are doing the same things we do, talking, checking
cell-phones, eating, shopping. And they smile back. And they are, after all,
just people, like you and me.
Here in Canada we are privileged. But it comes
at a price. It takes the perpetual busyness of maintaining a bank balance, of
paying a mortgage, of filling the fridge from the grocery store, of paying for
restaurants, and of being extensively taxed on everything. Oh my! And then
there is the daily dictum of emails and phone calls and occasional
disconnections with wifi to contend with. Oh my! Not to mention that the
microwave door that slams needs replacing. Or that the TV console really needs
to be specially designed and made to house all our records and DVD's.
We are creatures of the immediate. Each of us.
And each moment is all we have. We do not know exactly when the hands of God
will clap, summoning us to an unknown. Do we? In the meantime, we wait. We make
do. Or do we not? No, peace and privilege are not synonymous.
..................................................................
Tue, 2 May 2017 05:00:00 EDT CBC NEWS
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