Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and so are all the traditions that come with it — football, family, friends and of course a great, big dinner. But what I’m looking forward to most is the chance to slow down, reflect and give thanks.
I know I’m not alone in occasionally (OK, more than occasionally) finding myself getting so caught up in the day-to-day challenges of a middle-class existence that I take my good fortune for granted. Our culture of idolizing wealth, power, styles and lifestyles that are, for the most part, out of reach for the average person can leave us with a perpetual feeling of impoverishment. There’s always something more we don’t have. There’s always something we’re striving for that will make us happy — landing that job, getting an “A” on that test or buying some product. But when we get there, without fail, there’s always something else. You can call it greed; I call it human nature.
But, as the saying goes, “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of what you already have.” I’ve found that I’m my best self when I go by the 60 percent rule: If about 60 percent of things are going well in life, then hakuna matata. Swag. Just be happy. But it’s tough sometimes, because it takes a conscious effort to step back and remind ourselves. That’s what Thanksgiving (among other holidays) is here for.
It’s hard to even come to terms with the incredible privilege, technologies and rights even the poorest of us are swimming in daily. If my ancestral lineage were standing in a single file line, I would have thousands of relatives standing behind me who lived and died harsh lives with few, if any, of the luxuries I take for granted every day.
In fact, anyone privileged enough to be enrolled at this university reading this column is among the top 1 percent most fortunate human beings on the planet today. A helpful way of seeing the bigger picture is asking, “If the world were a village of 100 people what would it look like?” According to 100people.org, 61 would be Asian while just 14 would be from the Western Hemisphere. Fifty-three would live on $2 a day or less. Eighty-three would have access to safe drinking water, and 76 would have electricity. Ready for the kicker? Just one would have a college education.
While most of us would place ourselves within the “99 percent” in America, an idea popularized by Occupy Wall Street’s mantra, all of us, by the simple fact of being enrolled at this university, are among the “1 percent” worldwide. The bigger picture is shocking, but it’s important to occasionally dislodge our neurotic obsession with the people “above us” to consider the people “below us.”
Besides making me feel like Mr. Moneybags himself, the value lies in the question it raises: What can we do in the face of tremendous privilege? The answer is not to feel guilty about it or to be paralyzed in apathy or disbelief. The answer is to give thanks and to give back.
Sure, our day-to-day challenges aren’t going anywhere — there’s still the gloomy job market, that class you’re probably not going to get an “A” in and that girlfriend who is going to unexpectedly dump you because of that product you didn’t buy her (I know — out of nowhere, right?). But this holiday season, I look forward to relaxing and returning to a place of contentment with what I have. I’ll remember how fortunate I am to have a bed to sleep in, food on my plate, shoes on my feet and enrollment in one of the best schools in the country.
Ben Simon is a senior government and politics major. He can be reached at simon@umdbk.com.
