Someone told me about a quote she read from author Susan Sontag relating to “locating your privilege on the map of someone else’s pain”. Never mind what Sontag was actually saying in the original quote. What I took from hearing it second hand was, “Figure out what your greatest privilege is, see what other people suffer who don’t have it, and do something about that.” In other words, the clue to your purpose in life lies in sharing or leveraging your privilege.
I’ve had many privileges and blessings in my life, but one answer came to me immediately when I wondered what my greatest privilege has been: “having great parents.” The next one that came to mind was "becoming a parent." So now I’m focusing on work that will help people in some way with parenting.
The other belief I have is that we must work at social problems from both ends simultaneously. So I’m thinking about ways to help all people be good parents and ways to help people who suffered from "bad" parents. Also how to help the elite as well as the disadvantaged, because of course any of us could end up with any kind of parents.
To anyone reading this, what is your greatest privilege? And does this idea of "locating your privilege on the map of others' pain" resonate with you at all? Please comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment