Privilege and Empathy

The day after I published my lastest blog post, I was riding my moto across town and suddenly felt a huge amount of shame and embarrassment for what I wrote. I was swept up in this lie that I had no reason to feel stress or complain about the current situation because I'm so privileged: being able to work from home, having a home, owning a moto, having health insurance, having a Canadian passport, and spending $3 on a drink.

As I continued riding my moto, I was reminded that many people don't have health insurance to even worry about, or jobs they can work from home at, or the option of take a few hours off work to decompress and enjoy a nice drink at a cafe. So I thought "they have it worse than me, I can't complain, and I should not feel stress". 

I kept riding my moto, thoughts still stirring. I was thinking about privilege and empathy. There's nothing I did to be born in Canada with opportunities to study, work, make money, and not worry about health care. That just came to me. Sure, I put in the effort of studying and getting an education and working all sorts of jobs. It's not like everything fell on my lap - and that's not what privilege is.

Do I have the right to feel stress? My initial response to this self-posed question was "No, of course not. You have it so much better than much of the world, Kathleen. Just be thankful". I am very thankful for all that God has given me, for the things I have no control over and for the opportunities He's given. So does this mean that I can never express feelings of fear or stress because I don't have it as bad as the next person?

A friend from Canada was telling me about how it's annoying being stuck at home during this pandemic. My initial reaction was "You have nothing to complain about. At least you have a job. And a home to work at. And you're in Canada where there's space to go outside. And you have healthcare. etc. etc". I was not expressing any empathy.

How often do we tell others or think in our minds "they have nothing to be worried about, they don't have it nearly as bad as others I know"? We use other people's worse state-of-being as an excuse to withhold empathy.

Lord, forgive me. And give me an empathetic heart. And grace to acknowledge and share my feelings.