i have been thinking a lot about choices lately.

For many of us the idea of choice looks something like this quote:

choice quote

There is some truth in that, but i don’t think it is the whole Truth.

i also think it’s a nice quote for people with stuff [money, time, resources, skills, networks, opportunities].

Think about it for a second. Think of the choices you have in front of you right now. Name some of them in your head.

For example, do you have the means, if you chose to right now, to go online and book an air ticket to another part of the country? i do. It may not be the wisest decision in terms of long term money planning for these Andersons although an air ticket to somewhere in the country would not affect us too much – we could absorb that quite easily.

How about an air ticket to another country? A two week package to stay somewhere while you are there and be fed? Is that a choice you could make, purely from a practical I-have-the-money-and-I-could-literally-make-that-happen-in-the-next-ten-minutes-if-I-so-choose. For just you or you and your partner or your whole family if there are more of you?

The majority of people in the world probably do not have that choice in front of them. Which is a fact i imagine many of you will not be able to get your heads around. Cos unless you’ve lived it, i think it tends to be a bit of a story. That is kind of real but also not real. Cos it doesn’t touch you. Or me.

Choice Number 1 or Number 2?

How about something as simple as going to the toilet? Quick maths sum – how many toilets do you have in the place you are currently living? How many people do you have in the place you are currently living. Val and i rented a place about two years ago that had three toilets and it really used to disturb me. It was very comfortable and the rent was not crazy and it was in a fairly diverse and middle to low economy neighbourhood… but there were more toilets than people in the house.

Which is why i prefer our current home we are renting. Two people, one toilet.

           Literally a gold toilet. This exists in our world. And there is not only one of them.

A friend of ours at one of our Deep Dive Dinners a few years ago told us that 32 people grew up in his three room shack. And by three rooms i don’t mean three bedrooms. i mean the total of rooms in the house equaled three. As much as i try to understand that, i don’t think i ever will [unless i end up with 31 people living in a three room space] – i can understand the idea of it to some certain extent, but is is largely impossible for me to put my feet in that guy’s shoes. From an understanding perspective. Because i have never experienced anything close to that except perhaps for a max of two to three weeks on a missions trip where i knew i got to go home at the end of it.

Last year i attended the vigil of Sinoxolo who was murdered in a toilet in the township. Sinoxolo did not have what seems like such an easy and obvious choice like me. Her circumstances formed the choices that were available to her. And she paid for that with her life.

The Wages of Rich

i think that one of the symptoms of being rich is the increase in choice. The more poor you are, the more you have to make do with the current conditions. The richer you are the more freedom you have to make choices and change things and try new things. Also the move from survival to comfort. 

So back to our original quote about choice, it feels like a nicer quote for rich people. But having said that, i think the truth in it lies in the fact that no matter what your starting circumstances are, how you choose to respond to them will largely shape the outcome and paths of your life. But it is still a darn sight more fun and viable for those with money

Also, as you read this thinking that i am talking about someone else when i am talking about the rich, i am not. i am talking about you. And about me. Yes, there are people more rich than us, but we are richer than the majority of people on the planet, and probably by a long way.

If you have never sampled the red pill of the Global Rich List, give that link a try. You enter in your current details and it helps give you an idea of where you stand in terms of the wealth of the world. Seriously, click the link and give it a try [maybe enter in your results in the comments below – what percentage did you get?]

Everybody does not have what you have

We were at a meeting discussing economics and theology the other day and a few statements were made that i found interesting:

“Everybody has medical aid.”

“Everyone has insurance.”

“I’m sorry but I choose to send my kids to a school where they have international hockey trips.”

Sometimes, those of us who have stuff make assumptions that everyone else has the same stuff they do. i can give you at least one example of a family who doesn’t have medical aid or insurance and if they were choosing to have children would likely not choose a school based on the internationalness of their sporting trips.

Some conclusionary thoughts:

# The choices a young person who grows up in a township are not the same as the choices of someone who grows up in the suburbs. So it would be foolish to look at where each of those people end up in life and treat them as if they have walked a similar journey.

# Many of us appreciate the stuff we have – place to stay, vehicle, computer, clothes etc – some people don’t but i think a huge amount of people do not take their stuff for granted… but do we take the choices we have for granted, because i suspect we largely do. So i would love us to move to a place of really appreciating the choices we have in front of us… and hopefully that will be a window for us to look at others around us who do not have the same choice buffet and start to work towards a more just or equitable system where that changes somewhat.

# For someone who might not be eating regularly or well, a statement like “You’re not doing well at school? Just work harder!” is completely unhelpful and bordering on abusive. How can you work harder if you are distracted by a deep resonating hunger? We need to guard our words and our judgements of others output more carefully. 

# While the question of choice is largely an economic one – so this is a class question to some extent – because class is still largely divided along racial lines for the most part, this is also a race question. A sign of greater privilege is  wider selection of choices.