I was cleaning the kitchen and grumbly about the duty that takes my daily attention. The most used room in my house is constantly in need of mopping and wiping up spills. Keeping the heart of our home sanitary sometimes feels like a hopelessly repetitive and onerous task. I grumble at how often I find myself completing the same work over and over again and then I feel a terrible sense of guilt as I realize how incredibly fortunate I am to have a large and modern kitchen that would have impressed even the royalty of old. 

I take my refrigerator for granted with its spacious racks and freezer filled with the ingredients of future meals. I turn on my stove without worrying that smoke from burning wood will overcome me. I polish and clean my microwave oven that prepares my morning breakfast in under two minutes. I load the dishwasher that eliminates so much of the labor that I must provide to have clean dishes and pots and utensils. I end up chiding myself for grumbling because in the entire history of the world few people have enjoyed the convenience that I take for granted. 

I am an ordinary soul. I have not found the names of wealthy people in my background. I worked as a teacher making an average salary as far as those things go. I have become educated and worked hard in a world that accepted me as a woman. I didn’t have to fight for the privileges that I have. I walk through life living in a way that few humans have enjoyed in the long history of civilization. My kitchen is but one piece of evidence of my good fortune. 

I have a robot that vacuums my floors every day except Sunday. I have cool air in the summer and warmth in the winter. After the chores of my day are done I am able to sit in front of a large screen and watch movies, sporting events, and the latest news. The marvels that are at my fingertips would have felt miraculous only a few decades ago. So why do I sometimes forget to be grateful for the bounty and ease of my life? Why am I often wishing for more or forgetting that even in the present day not everyone enjoys the comfortable life that is mine?

It is so easy to only focus on the horrific aspects of life. Of course we still become ill. People that we love still die. We are constantly challenged but we have tools that make our duties so much easier to tackle than at any time in history. We would all do well to quit allowing politicians to rant in attempts to make us believe that our lives are somehow horrific. We fall too easily for attempts to make us afraid of each other or to be envious of people who seem to enjoy favors that are not granted to us. 

Most of the problems of the world exist not so much because of ordinary people but because bad powerful people want to manipulate us into helping them become even more powerful. They spread fear to make us think that only they have the answers to keeping us safe and thriving. They stir the pot and suggest that we should be very afraid and that taking away the freedoms of others will somehow make us more free and prosperous. 

I have to remind myself now and again that I somehow fell into a much easier life than much of the world’s population. Fate challenged me with the death of my father when I was very young but my family’s situation was made bearable from the simple fact of where we were born and the color of our skin. I do not know what it is like to be judged as inferior because of aspects of my life over which I have no control. I won the American lottery so to speak without any special effort on my part. I had a head start in life because I lived in a nation of growing opportunities and from my birth my white skin gave me entrance to aspects of America that were not allowed for those of other shades of complexion. 

I know these things to be true and yet I take my good fortune for granted. I have never been shunned. I walk quietly through life barely being noticed which is actually a very good thing. Nobody is wondering if I am living here illegally. Nobody questions by citizenship or even my rights and I did nothing other than being born in the right place at the right time. Unlike many in my situation who brood over the possibility that their luck of the draw is being somehow diluted by people who do not deserve a share of what we have always had, I totally understand why they just want life to be more fair. They don’t want to have to fight for what was automatically given to me.

I have a friend who writes the most beautiful porch pondering that comes to her mind as she sips her coffee or tea in the early morning. I find that my own musings often occur when I am engaged in the labors of keeping my home in order. I don’t really have to think to mop the floor so my mind drifts off to considering how incredible it is that I live as well as I do. Then I begin thinking about those who have had to work so very hard to acquire even a semblance of my good fortune. I truly wish that we would all consider such things before we allow horrific and incredibly wealthy people to turn us against each other. We would do well to consider that if they can take away the freedoms and opportunities of some, they can take away the freedoms and opportunities of all. 

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