“I could not explain this sadness to the apartment dwellers who surrounded me. They had no idea of the precious comforts they took for granted: to be able to know your kitchen sink, to look at it comfortably and know it will always be yours; to sit on your back step and contemplate your yard; to look calmly upon your front door with no danger of not seeing it again; to lavish in insideness, your walls, your light fixtures, your toilet paper holder."
–Lisa Gray-Garcia, in Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America
What does it truly mean to "be privileged"? Those of us who have experienced steady and secure housing, employment, and lasting long-term relationships- amongst countless other blessings- inevitably see the world through a very different lens from those of us whose reality has been less stable. Yet even at the most basic level, hidden inequalities pervade even the most simple aspects of our daily lives.
As Lisa Gray-Garcia points out, even one's understanding of what it means to "be privileged" can actually bear the marker of that same privilege. If someone has never lived in fear of eviction, it might never even occur to them that such stability could be considered a privilege.
In a society that teaches us to strive constantly for more- more pairs of shoes, more garage doors- it's easy to lose sight of the simple things. Whether it be the humble fixture that holds our toilet paper, or the simple fact of coming home to the same front door every day, many of us have the privilege of taking for granted the most basic of luxuries- blessings so simple that we often forget to consider them luxuries at all.
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