Writer Nils von Kalm is grateful.
Just another impossibly beautiful sunset from my balcony in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
Today was one of those magical Melbourne days where there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, there was just a slight breeze and the temperature was just right. It couldn’t have been better.
I spent the day in a setting that matched the weather. There were immaculate gardens around a beautiful old home with people who were friendly and personable.
It got me thinking about my own privilege. That’s been on my mind a bit lately. I’m a white, middle-class male; I’ve never faced serious discrimination in my life; I live in one of the most liveable cities in one of the richest countries on the planet. As Tim Costello once said, people like me have won the cosmic lottery. And it’s just because of an accident of birth.
Why is it that I have been given this sort of life when billions haven’t? I mentioned recently that my privilege is a valuable currency. I can choose to save it for myself and therefore waste it, or I can use it for the betterment of people in my circle of influence and for the planet.
Love is all that matters. So the only thing that matters is that I use my gifts for love. Otherwise they are meaningless. And part of that is learning to shut up and listen to those who are not privileged, because they have the gift of their suffering to allow them to grow and teach me.
Pain always provides a better opportunity to grow than privilege does. That’s a big reason (not the only one) that we in the affluent West are largely an adolescent society. Not that people who live in suffering are always more mature. But the point holds. We always grow more through suffering than we do in pleasant circumstances.
So, on this impossibly beautiful day, I’m grateful and I’m aware that there is nothing I have which is not a gift. God help me to use it for love.