Post 4007 - Pandemic Stuff

Well,  hello there again.

It was another quiet day. We didn't do much. In the afternoon, we watched the latest Covid-19 briefing on the youtube app on the roku. We are still unhappy with the way Dr. Strang talked about how people should not move back and forth between their homes and their cottages. He was quite angry, quite testy. He said that if we are so privileged to have two properties that we should recognize that privilege and choose one place and stay there until things start to open up again.

I agree that we should stay the blazes home, or at the very least, stay the blazes in one place until all this is over. But I object strenuously to the word "privileged". 

We were not given the things we have acquired in this life. In my case, I finished high school, unlike some of the people who complain to me about being privileged. I went to university, unlike most of the people who complain to me about being privileged, paying for that education with student loans and part time jobs. I earned a bachelor's degree in a discipline that led to a decent-paying job, unlike all of the people who complain to me about being privileged. 

I have never got in trouble with the law. I worked for decades, sometimes quite unhappily, and tolerated and bore slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune, because I knew the day would come when I could retire. Along the way, I managed to get a mortgage on a relatively modest home. In 2016, Patricia and I bought a brand-new car, something we had never been able to do in all the years before. It took years and years, but I was able to get a new deck for the house, along with new windows and doors, without acquiring any more debt. New appliances have been purchased over the years. None of these things was given to us. We had to pay for them. Save up. Do without. Shopping for shirts at thrift stores. Pay cash.

I don't know how any of the above qualifies as "privilege". I recognize that I grew up with enough brains, barely, to achieve a few educational milestones. And I chose to live a certain life that didn't get me any kind of legal trouble. And I managed to get a job that paid me a decent salary. But that job was not one that was just afforded to me. It was not one that I was entitled to. Each job I got, I had to apply for it in an open competition and get, each and every time. And as I mentioned, I had to put up with piles of feces from bosses who knew that they could get away with treating me any way they wanted to. One of them may be reading this. Screw you, sir.

How am I privileged because I had to struggle and in the last third or so of my life, I have managed to acquire a few tangible assets? Explain that to me. Educate me. Help me understand how I am such a greedy little tycoon who doesn't give a crap about anybody else. 

We're staying here in the city. Not going much farther than Bayer's Lake, about 10 minutes from here, and only then to get the things we really need. We are doing our part.

Maybe those bitter a-holes who look askance at me and other "privileged" people can focus a bit more on their own behaviour than someone else's?

Now, if you'll excuse me, my caviar is rapidly achieving room temperature. And my wine is only slightly chilled. We can't have that. 

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy