We don't know how to be...

Or, we don't really know what it is like to be...*

When looking at the world around us, there is this lasting temptation to say:
"They should do X," or "They should understand Y," or "If I were in their shoes, I would do Z."

The truth is:
We are not in their shoes.
There is no possible way on earth for us to be born and grow up exactly as they have — to understand and judge the way they do.

It is incredibly hard to write a generic set of statements that won’t provoke discord and discontent, so understand that, in many of these cases, while we may have experienced something similar, we have not lived all conditions.

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We don't know what it is like to be POOR

We may have lived with very little or no money, but that isn't what it means to be poor.
Being poor is when none of the opportunities are even remotely available:

• access to education,

• health care,

• proper housing,

• plumbing,

• electricity,

• fresh water,

• edible food,

• warmth,

• shelter...

and the list is endless.

I once spent some time where I had so little that I thought myself poor — until I remembered that I had not been born poor, that I had had plenty of access to the basic necessities of life, and that I could therefore stop being "poor" practically any time I wished.

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We don't know what it is like to be RICH

Anyone who has never been rich cannot truly understand it.
The constant pressure to remain rich (after all, who willingly chooses not to be rich?), the added responsibilities — paying for everything, carrying higher taxes, managing two or more homes, multiple cars, and more.

When challenged to manage being rich, most people are flummoxed by the burden and often end up worse off than when they started.

Money doesn't buy happiness; it buys responsibility — and, in most cases, added danger.

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We don't know what it is like to be BLACK

And how could we, if we were not born that way?
Even then, being black doesn't mean the same thing everywhere.
In some countries, everyone is black.

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We don't know what it is like to be WHITE

And here’s the rub:
Being white often seems to guarantee that everything is tailored to your particular blend of color, and the world feels right.
But how can that be, if so much of the world is simultaneously castigating everything white?

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We don't know what it is like to be CRIPPLED

And here we must understand the different ways a person can be crippled.
It is not always a physical disability.
It can include emotional, mental, and social restrictions — burdens that throw excessive weight on those who do not "fit in."

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We don't know what it is like to be MALE

The pressure is there, real and unrelenting, to maintain the stereotypes forced upon what it means to be a man.

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We don't know what it is like to be a WOMAN

A prescribed and restrictive role binds the female gender to patterns of servitude and perceived weakness, while in truth, it is their strength that has quietly bound the fabric of humanity since the earliest days.

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We don't know what it is like to be SLAVES, REPRESSED, TRODDEN ON, BULLIED, ABANDONED, SACRIFICED — until we do.

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Reflect on each of these points before believing you have the right to judge and dictate what is right or wrong.

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