Sometimes it just hits me: my easeful life is made possible by the labor of thousands, millions of men and women working under conditions I cannot even imagine. Sometimes it just hits me: life is grotesquely unfair. (Yet I will almost always win.) And for hours, days, maybe even as long as a week, that piercing realization informs everything I experience.
But over time, this in-my-bones realization of the enormous disparity between my blessed and privileged life and those “less fortunate” —such a cold and lofty and dishonest phrase! — well, it fades. Lessens. Deadens.
How do I order my life so that this once-piercing realization informs everything I do? A citizen of a deeply connected/ interconnected Beloved Community, how am I to be truly mindful of all its residents?
I wonder.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hi, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you AND FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very awesomely precious and dearly special soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much!!!!! AWWWWW, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia!!!!! You’ve gone straight to this black woman’s very heart and spirit with this beautiful, brilliantly beautiful, engaging, and endearing blog post article straight from your so, so very special and precious, deeply sincere heart and spirit as the so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful soul sistahfriend white woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much!!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I love so, so much how you have shared and declared here with such a sweetly and profoundly deep, sincere heart and spirit, my so, so very sweet white sistah, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I just love so how you share so openly about having white privilege, my so, so very dearest and darling, precious friend, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <You are truly a FOR REAL sistahfriend, Patricia, my absolutely AWESOME white sisterfriend, and so are other so, so very, very, right on, wondrously wonderful soul sistahfriends white women with ME just so, so very much loving and cherishing all of you with each and every one of you as such SUPER white women being my very, very heart!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I know that you, my so, so very dearest and darling friend, Patricia, and other of my very special white sistahs and white brothers as our Sweet Spirit's precious children have white privilege and with that advantage being certain degrees of comfort and access like to resources which I don't have as a black woman and that other black people and people of color don't have due to not having white privilege. I just so love how you share and declare straight from your beautiful, absolutely beautiful heart and spirit about the white privilege you have and at least to that extent having some advantages due to white privilege, my absolutely FANTASTIC white sisterfriend, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My so, so very dear sisterfriend, I know that you and other amazing white persons have white privilege but also I think that YOU, my so, so very precious sistahfriend, Patricia, and other SUPERB white women and white girls also have your very cross to bear and that life ain't no crystal stair for each and every one of you as such absolutely WONDERFUL white women and white girls. Although you, sistah, and other white women and white girls have white privilege, you all are grievously oppressed as well and bear the horrific brunt of perniciously pervasive sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny!!!!! Your so, so very dear and precious lives as white women and white girls are so, so very, very far from being problem free and stressful, and life isn't so easy for each and every one of you as such so, so very dearest white women and white girls and your lives are definitely not a bed of roses. You all as such astounding white women and white girls can be such a struggle and can be so hard for all of you even with having white privilege. YOU ALL as such awesome white women and white girls are my sisters, are our sisters like with me as a black women and for other black women and women of color, and we are all in this together, and you all as such amazing white women and white girls suffer as well and being egregiously and unfairly oppressed as well because although you are white people having white privilege you are oppressed as women, as white women, sistahfriend. My very, very heart just aches and breaks as very, very many special white women and white girls face, endure, and experience sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual terrorism, and domestic violence!!!!!!! Sistahfriend, as you ask yourself and wonderful how you can more often think and reflect upon your privilege and advantages I can just tell, Patricia, how hard you're working on this just doing your absolutely very best in such a diligently conscientious manner. Even as you might sometimes not automatically think on that you have white privilege and some advantages I know that with the way you are so deeply open and engaged in this very process that as you practice thinking upon and reflecting on all of this your very wondering about all of this will help you so much in making those very important and vitally urgent, necessary connections, my so, so very wonderful sister and friend, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I just so love here how you very earnestly say here, "I wonder." This beautifully outstanding blog post article reminds me of the other one which you masterfully composed awhile back about how privilege blinds, my friend. My friend, I remember how I wrote awhile back in response to that so full of grace blog post article that it makes sense and is very easy for privilege to be blinded by itself, and along with that I see and so understand how marvelous white persons can be blinded by your white privilege. It makes such great sense, sister!!!!! Sisterfriend, very frequently when I pray and meditate I can see in my very mind's eye in my immense imagination as I envision what it must be like for YOU, my so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful soul sistahfriend white woman, Patricia, and for other so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful white women!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Very often I see, think, feel, and wonder what is it REALLY like for all of you as such very cool in spirit and Spirit white women!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I just so love and cherish you all so, so very much as such spectacular white women and I truly want to know, to learn, to understand, and I am on your side, Patricia, and I am for sure on other white women's side as well, and I just so, so very deeply love you all and cherish you all in thinking so, so very highly of each and every one of you as such precious white women!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YOU, Patricia, and other SUPER white women are my by very, very far my very favorites among white people and also my by very, very far my very favorites among all people in general!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Patricia, YOU and other SUPERB white women are my very life and eternal blessings and also each and every one of you are such the very, very epitome of such overall awesomeness as such absolutely AWESOME white women, my so, so very dear friend and sister!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistah, I know that it can be hard to be a black woman being oppressed facing, enduring, and experiencing racism, oppression, and the discriminatory features which are a part of all of that and I know that it can be unfair but EVEN SO I don't care and I'll FOR ALWAYS so, so very much love and cherish YOU, my so, so very dearest sistahfriend, Patricia, and other absolutely WONDERFUL white women and I have no more anger, resentments, and bitterness because I just so love and cherish all of you as such AWESOME white women and I don't care about the unfairness of it all for I hold all of you so, so very dear and close in my very, very heart for you all as white women are my very, very heart!!!!!! 🙂 <3 We are all in this together as sisters in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity with our vast and strong sisterhood in all of our relationships and partnerships, friendships, and other connections, and in our sweetly enduring and abiding sisterhood!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sistah, I think of your great words about your white privilege and having some advantages and I think of myself. Even though I'm an indigent, multiply disabled lesbian black woman who has multiple permanent and chronic physical disabilities sand even other disabilities, too, receiving my low, fixed income with my disability benefits I have some advantages, though. Like with poor people in other countries even though I'm poor I have a higher standard of living than folks do who are indigent like in Third World countries. Even though I'm indigent, I even have some advantages more so that other indigent people within our beautiful country, too. I grew up with some advantages with me growing up black middle class and black middle income having some financial advantages although also I grew up severely abused in every way with alcoholic and otherwise addicted parents, two older brothers, and with alcoholism and the other addictions running rampant up and down both sides of my family. I have some privilege, too, like with being college educated. I have Christian privilege being a Christian woman. I see that I, too, have some privilege as well, sistah, even though I'm a member of very many oppressed groups as well, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My sweet friend, what a masterfully and brilliantly composed blog post article here in which you've very aptly made very many relevant points here, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 What a perfect title for this very fine and excellent writing here with a very interesting picture perfect picture accompanying it, sistahfriend!!!!! I was so much and so hard praying for all of you with that bad storm and difficult traveling, my so, so very dearest and darling, precious friend and sister, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistahfriend, I feel even better and brighter with even more greatly added cheer from this very emboldening, inspirational, and uplifting blog post article here, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for our very sisterhood and friendship, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! Patricia, YOU are such a joy and a blessing and I thank-YOU and Spirit continually FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR VERY PRESENCE IN MY VERY LIFE!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistah, please have such a superbly super Sunday, such a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend and week ahead, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistahfriend, may the New England Patriots win the game today against the Jacksonville Jaguars with the mighty Patriots going on to the Super Bowl and then winning the Super Bowl again, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Sister, my poor Cleveland Browns didn't even win a game this season-UGH!!!!!!! Sistahfriend, Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes you A WHOLE LOT AND SO DO I A WHOLE LOT AND A WHOLE BUNCH, TOO, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS AWESOMELY SPECIAL AND DEARLY PRECIOUS SOUL SISTAHFRIEND CHRISTIAN QUAKER WHITE WOMAN WHO YOU'RE FOR ALWAYS SO, SO VERY MUCH, Patricia, sisterfriend of mine, with My and Spirit's VERY PEACE AND LOVE FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister of mine, and with SUCH BLESSINGS AND SUCH VERY EVEN MORE BLESSINGS FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, friend of mine, 🙂 <3
YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian black woman AND FOR ALWAYS IN THE VERY GREAT SPIRIT OF UNITY AND SOLIDARITY, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 <3
AWWWWW, my sistah and friend, oops I meant to also say that I’m just so, so very glad, thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that there are Women’s Marches all across our beloved United States Of America and also throughout our world, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!! I sure wish that I could’ve gone to the Women’s March!!!!!! 🙂 <3