Different sides of the same looking glass.
I recently read a quick, update-style piece from Maggie Rogers and it got me thinking about accessibility in modern life.
In her summer update, Maggie talked about relatively docile things, and sounded more like one of us normies, than she could've. She visited family in Maine, absconded to Greece, watched the World Cup, jet-set to Boston and then on to London where she teamed up with Ralph Lauren at Wimbledon. Then she's talking about chasing "wonder" and, as I'm reading, I can't help but think the privilege in that. And now I'm faced with recognizing my own...
I've got plenty.
I mean, I'm a relatively educated white guy from the suburbs of Boston. I also know what it's like to work multiple jobs while perpetually afraid of not being able to pay rent. I know what it's like to live on credit cards to preserve what little cash I had until I could pay it off later. I know the disdain that comes from hearing people talk about needing to budget or "just live within your means" when the problem is the amount coming in, not the amount that's going out. And, I know what it's like to climb out of a life like that—where becoming literate in personal finance was finally relevant, and where thinking in percentages, rather than dollar-amounts, was actually applicable.
It costs money to do things, obviously. But I can't help but feel it's reached a point where doing almost anything requires spending a decent chunk of change.
Yes, yes—there are plenty of free things out there, too. But when I think of the stuff I want to do in this life, like go to a concert or an event, or maybe take a trip somewhere far away and hop from coffee shop to coffee shop as a way of acquiring a taste for a place, my daydreams sometimes deflate like a whoopie cushion.
I'm looking at Maggie's words on the screen and I can feel the levity beneath them. But I'm still hung up on something... At what point does wonder teeter from concern to curiosity? Where's the line between "Wow... I wonder if I'll be ok" and "Wow! I wonder what's next?!"
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
327/365
Is your version of wonder steeped in concern or curiosity?
onward.
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