Redefining Privilege 

 “An orphan is not a child raised without parents but a child raised without love.” — Victor Hugo

With Hugo’s definition of an orphan that triumphs a realism not captured by the dictionary definition, are we then compelled to change our age old definition of privilege? Instead of bestowing privilege to those with great wealth, high social standing, and the best education should we consider the privileged to be those who have love? I view the world as a series of infinitely unwritten time steps. No clock can escape mortality and thus when it is time for our last time step to tick, would I feel privileged to be successful or would I feel privileged to have felt love? For if we view success as a mere reflection of our worth to society and we view love as a reflection of our soul’s worth to another heart, I have a hard time believing my conviction to the former would be stronger. Without love, we are reduced to machines with computational and creative power. To die without love is to enter a world as a human, and to leave as a stainless steel robot. To whom or what shall we accredit the invention of this most unfortunate fate for a suffering soul? Whoever this monster may be, why does its presence only disgrace select souls? Is there no justice system? You see, my struggle with accepting God is entangled in this very question. How could a being, be it an entity or not, be held responsible for such a delicacy? Is it a lottery system based on pure randomness? Is it a limited allotment process such that for every area, there is a degree distribution based on factors such as population size? Accuse me of cynicism, and accuse me correctly yet do not forget not that one cannot blame a soul for questioning the existence of the wind without having ever felt it. Furthering this exposition, we ask if optimism is a blessing within a curse. You wake every morning, seeing the best of the moment, the best of the day, the best of yourself, the best of the universe yet you know your unyielding belief is rooted in the belief of the belief itself. You believe in optimism and this is your curse for only a fool believes everything will happen for good. Embrace cynicism. See the truth for how it was meant to be seen and allow your dreams to be your religion. Allow your dreams to be the parents you never had and the love you never felt. Let them set you free. They will never make you feel inadequate or inferior and they will replace the oxygen running through your blood with an enchanting magic mistakenly rumored to only be alive in fiction.

-Riddhi Sanwal