This is very personal for me to share, and I hope that you find it thought-provoking or are able to relate in some way.<\/p>\n
I feel guilt because I know not of what it is like to have eat the packaging of a product
\nbecause my neighbors are unable to purchase my mothers threads.
\nI know not of the taste of straw on my tongue
\nto be the same as the one plowed in the soil that my hands have felt.
\nOr the worry of my food spoiling before I have the chance to eat it,
\nbecause my developed country provides me with packaging that I do not need to eat
\nbecause there is enough food for all of us
\ntimes 2.<\/p>\n
I feel guilt because I have not experienced the hardships of a bad crop.
\nIf my neighbor produces a bad crop, that is none of my concern.
\nI can simply drive to another seller
\nmiles
\nand
\nmiles
\naway.
\nBecause my developed country grants me the freedom of transportation.<\/p>\n
I feel guilt because much of what I treasure is at the expense of another.
\nAnd often
\nI feel that the expense is made by my own,
\npersonal
\nintentional choice.<\/p>\n
Is it my fault that the hummus I just bought was encased in plastic from India?
\nWasn\u2019t it my fault, because I bought it?
\nWasn\u2019t it my fault, because I purchased the option that was $1.99 cheaper
\nthan the environmentally-friendly, compostable packaging
\nthat was produced 2 miles north from where I live?
\nI could have bought that one.
\nI could have.
\nI could have also pulled the toxins straight from the Indian boy\u2019s lungs too.
\nI could have if I spared the $1.99 more, right?
\nI could have saved him, couldn\u2019t I?
\nI could have saved myself.<\/p>\n
I know that
\nI am in a developed country.
\nWhich is why I do have this luxury
\nand the freedom to decide
\nwhich hummus I want to eat
\nat what time
\non what day
\nbecause food is plentiful here.
\nFood that is sometimes made of pure sugar
\nthat goes to my thighs
\ninstead of my brain
\nthat goes to my stomach
\ninstead of my feet.
\nSo that at the end of the day I cannot find the energy that I thought I consumed.
\nBut food is plentiful here.<\/p>\n
I know
\nthat my wages are more than my neighbor
\ntrust me
\nI know
\nthat my neighbor in Nepal has it worse
\nbecause they do not receive a high wage every month.
\nThey might not have food that is plenty, either\u2026
\nBut do they have love, instead?<\/p>\n
Can I trade my monthly wage for a joyous love?
\nFor the fulfillment that is not brought by the purchase of my first car or
\nthat is not bought by the purchase of my first degree?
\nThat degree, I was told
\ntold by every person I ever knew in my entire life
\nthat it would change my life into the one that I dreamed of.
\nThe one that I dreamed of.
\nThe one that I dreamed of?
\nI thought I dreamed of hiking
\nand love
\nand friends
\nlaughing.
\nI guess I forgot
\nthat instead I dreamed of earning freedom
\nthrough payments
\npayments I make with money
\npayments I make with years of my life spent
\nnose in a book
\nfoot on the grinder
\nbutt in a seat.
\nThat is how I earn my freedom
\nby graduating school, 4 schools to be exact
\nthen getting a job
\nso now I am free.
\nAren\u2019t I?
\nI know I live in the land of the Free.
\nIn the land where people do not starve.<\/p>\n
Are these things even luxuries anymore?
\nIs my loan payment
\ncar payment
\nhousing payment
\nand all the other monetary things that my high wage pays for
\neven a luxury if my developed country requires them to live?
\nIf without these things,
\nI am not considered free?<\/p>\n
Am I just as happy as the boy who starves at night
\nwho has toxins in his lungs
\nbecause he makes plastic containers for the hummus that I eat so that it is $1.99 cheaper
\nso I can afford it in my developed country.
\nIs he just as happy as I am?
\nIf he is, do we share this guilt?<\/p>\n
But what if
\nwhat if that guilt is the guilt that I am forced to feel because it is how my God-loving,
\ngood-natured
\ndemocratic
\nhumanitarian government, stays good-natured and democratic?
\nWould this make them just as guilty as me?
\nWould this still be considered a conscious decision?
\nDoes making this decision make me just as unhappy
\nas the Indian boy with toxins in his lungs
\nwho does not live in my developed country?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is very personal for me to share, and I hope that you find it thought-provoking or are able to relate in some way. I feel guilt because I know not of what it is like to have eat the packaging of a product because my neighbors are unable to purchase my mothers threads. I know not of the taste… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18,22,13,3,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-econ-dev","category-freedom","category-governance","category-human-rights","category-localism-globalism","category-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/ps301\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}