I actually had a different post scheduled for Sunday's posting, but on Sunday I went to the beach and while skim-boarding, I somehow managed to dislocate my knee briefly and as a result, I am on crutches and cannot walk. I've been ordered to restrict my movements to the extent that I can't work for a week and it has been difficult to move, even to sit in a position long enough so that i might write a new post. Nevertheless, I've propped myself up on millions of pillows and am attempting to continue one of my earlier unfinished thoughts. It began like this:
That doesn't feel comfortable to look at, but what answer do you have to that question? What, in life, as humans, as men, as women, as girlfriends or boyfriends, as employees, or mothers or fathers or sons and daughters are we entitled to? There are things that might seem obvious, like life, but what about war? Shelter may be one, but then, what about homeless people? I can't even include food as an entitlement because too many people - in both the developed and developing world - don't have it. What are we as humans entitled to then, really?
You see people's sense of entitlement come out at the strangest of times, like the person who publicly berates any farce of a "loving God" for letting earthquakes happen or tsunamis, for letting babies die and animals get abused. That suggests to me that someone assumes the presence of a loving God makes everyone under the existence of such a God entitled to safety and happiness. My sense of entitlement has come out a lot this year, I must say. I took my time to come to terms with my plan changes, and I just recently got hired. I prayed daily for a good attitude and to be so present at work, to be an active member of life, contributing et cetera and three weeks into work I've damaged myself to the extent that I don't know if I will be permitted to return next week. I can't move and I have to gulp down the desire to be like "WTH! Am I not entitled to a good experience? Am I not entitled to see those "plans to prosper" me come about?
The fact is though, I'm not entitled. I am absolutely not entitled to any of the things that I am most bitter about not seeing come to fruition this year. When I think about all of the things in a year, in a day we look around, wide eyed and expectant for, I am amazed. How many subtle messages are there in the media for working your butt off as a generally good way to be? There are messages about working, but they are always with the angle of "...so you can make loads of money", and realistically, we all need money, but where is the heart of humanity? If I could replace my indignance over not having every misguided but hopeful expectation of mine about my life fulfilled with some action that puts something good into my world then I think I would be a much better person.
I am proactive, and I always saw my sense of entitlement as adaptive, because my principle has always been that I am going to work hard for everything that I believe myself entitled to. What if that is wrong though? I am not saying that expectancy is ludicrous and unbiblical or selfish, but I am thinking about the indignance we get when what we're really doing is mixing up what is blessing with what is our entitlement. What if what we are blessed with is completely independent of what we are entitled to, what if the only product of prayer is communion with God, the only outcome of good, moral living is rightness with God? What if every good thing is a bonus, neither guaranteed nor necessarily recurrent?
I am being typical right now. I am 26, and developmentally obvious at the moment. As a young woman, I want to get married and have babies. As a newly qualified member of the workforce, I want to smack my Master's degree in the faces of all potential employers, asking them hotly if they don't know what this means, what it says about my last few years. As a Christian I am just slightly disillusioned with the social support of church, and with the social alternative outside of church and as a globe-trotter I am horribly bored with everything that is familiar (especially when faced with the idea of being stationary, anywhere). I want mobility, technology and quick results for my efforts, just like a millennial.I want you to be comfortable with the reactions you probably had to that post - some of it might feel like an overshare, some, incredibly obnoxious and in other ways it may seem ungrateful and presumptuous. I'm glad. I decided that it was a good day to consider our attitudes, and decided to bare my dirty laundry as exhibit A. I am thinking about how society is geared up so intently on the entitlement of the individual. Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines this word as a belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges. If you grew up, like me, in a capitalist society, even a capitalist-esque society then your sense of entitlement will probably be higher than people from other social structures. One article I found talks about the growing sense of entitlement in America, and purports that it may be because of a distortion of the "importance of self esteem" argument. The author argued that perhaps it was people's idea that if I am ultimately "Ok" then when I don't feel ok it is due to someone else not supplying what I am entitled to.
That doesn't feel comfortable to look at, but what answer do you have to that question? What, in life, as humans, as men, as women, as girlfriends or boyfriends, as employees, or mothers or fathers or sons and daughters are we entitled to? There are things that might seem obvious, like life, but what about war? Shelter may be one, but then, what about homeless people? I can't even include food as an entitlement because too many people - in both the developed and developing world - don't have it. What are we as humans entitled to then, really?
You see people's sense of entitlement come out at the strangest of times, like the person who publicly berates any farce of a "loving God" for letting earthquakes happen or tsunamis, for letting babies die and animals get abused. That suggests to me that someone assumes the presence of a loving God makes everyone under the existence of such a God entitled to safety and happiness. My sense of entitlement has come out a lot this year, I must say. I took my time to come to terms with my plan changes, and I just recently got hired. I prayed daily for a good attitude and to be so present at work, to be an active member of life, contributing et cetera and three weeks into work I've damaged myself to the extent that I don't know if I will be permitted to return next week. I can't move and I have to gulp down the desire to be like "WTH! Am I not entitled to a good experience? Am I not entitled to see those "plans to prosper" me come about?
The fact is though, I'm not entitled. I am absolutely not entitled to any of the things that I am most bitter about not seeing come to fruition this year. When I think about all of the things in a year, in a day we look around, wide eyed and expectant for, I am amazed. How many subtle messages are there in the media for working your butt off as a generally good way to be? There are messages about working, but they are always with the angle of "...so you can make loads of money", and realistically, we all need money, but where is the heart of humanity? If I could replace my indignance over not having every misguided but hopeful expectation of mine about my life fulfilled with some action that puts something good into my world then I think I would be a much better person.
I am proactive, and I always saw my sense of entitlement as adaptive, because my principle has always been that I am going to work hard for everything that I believe myself entitled to. What if that is wrong though? I am not saying that expectancy is ludicrous and unbiblical or selfish, but I am thinking about the indignance we get when what we're really doing is mixing up what is blessing with what is our entitlement. What if what we are blessed with is completely independent of what we are entitled to, what if the only product of prayer is communion with God, the only outcome of good, moral living is rightness with God? What if every good thing is a bonus, neither guaranteed nor necessarily recurrent?
No comments:
Post a Comment