In Monday’s blog I wrote that living simply for me meant being clear about  about my values, and then living in a manner consistent with them.

This eschews the important question of what those values are – what it is that matters most to me.

I believe this COVID-19 season is inviting me to wake up and revisit my values.

As I mentioned in the earlier post, my parents were extremely thrifty Mennonite medical missionaries. Because we were privileged whites living among really poor people of color in Paraguay, they believed it was essential for us to live as frugally as possible so as to not accentuate the disparities or stand out too much. (Of course, we stood out anyway!)

As an adult in the U.S., this value of frugality has slipped away from me. But the truth of the matter is that I am still a privileged white person with (mostly) healthy genes, living among many who are far less fortunate.

When I speak of privilege, I’m referring to forms of access to resources that result from structural, legal or social norms. It has nothing to do with any particular action, inaction, or even awareness on my part about the existence of disparity, the potential benefits that I derive from the privilege, or the costs to others. It just is.

So, my privilege is socially given. It’s not something I chose or earned. And I cannot run away from having it. The only choice I have is how I engage with the privilege that I was born into.

This is an uncomfortable space for me.

I’m a white, able-bodied, straight, English-speaking woman, and in the U.S., these particular identities are easy to forget because they are ‘normal.’ They’re just an ordinary way of being in the world that surrounds me, so it’s easy for me to forget how fundamentally they define me and the opportunities I’ve had in my life. Of course, my gender has sometimes put me at a disadvantage, but that doesn’t take away from the many unearned benefits I was handed simply because I was born a certain way.

I intend to willingly take on the discomfort, to own and remember those ‘ordinary’ aspects of my identity, learn what they have meant and continue to mean in my life, and look for opportunities to contribute to others when and where I can.

Because, as COVID-19 has also taught us, we are all in this together.