This is the next in a series about my attempts to find and live a Rule of Life. You can read the first post about my search here. I’ve also written about simplicity, faithfulness, generosity and ecological justice.
I long to live a just, faithful, generous, simple life in community.
If you’ve been reading along, you know by now that no aspect of my Rule of Life is as easy as it might sound. I’m sure living a socially just life looks different for everyone, but my views on this are inextricably linked with the fact that I am a white, middle aged, middle class woman from the American South. My experiences have shaped what I view as just and unjust systems, institutions and people. While this is a complex issue, it will help me if I create some categories for how I try to approach living a socially just life. For this newsletter’s purposes, I’m going with education, wealth distribution and privilege.
My experiences with education are varied. I went to a small, private Christian school for my early elementary years and spent most of my K-12 years in public school. I then transitioned to a private university. My daughters went to public school, homeschool tutorials and private Catholic schools before transitioning to public and private universities.
When I think about how I want to live a socially just life, education is important in two ways: 1) I long for our educational systems to provide a level playing field and 2) I want to never stop educating myself on the injustices in our world and how to combat them.
How can I say I want educational systems that provide a level playing field when we chose private high schools for our daughters? It feels uncomfortable, I’ll admit. But the reality I have is not the reality I long for. With each daughter, we had our reasons for the decisions we made: the easiest transition from homeschool back to traditional school, the religious education they would receive alongside the academic classes and who our daughters are as individuals. I do wish our time in public school had been different or lasted longer, but I don’t regret the decision to homeschool. That decision was largely uninfluenced by our school options and was a wonderful lifestyle choice for our family for the years it lasted. What I long for is a just educational system that provides funding equably - or perhaps even funds those most in need with the most dollars. A just educational system would change so many of our other broken systems.
I have spent much of adulthood learning about existing unjust systems in our country and unlearning my ways of seeing our world. It was one of my daughters who first taught me about redlining. Our church provided the opportunity to take Sacred Ground. I’ve read and read and read. Fiction and nonfiction books have taught me so much history that wasn’t part of my high school or college education.
Perhaps like some of you, I rolled my eyes the first few times I heard my teen and twenty-something daughters talk about the evils of capitalism. But then I began to listen and take a closer look at the world around me. Part of the Sacred Ground curriculum talks about the industrial revolution and the shift that occurred in families when factory workers were needed. I’m not saying wealth is necessarily bad, but I think it’s easy to confuse American values with Christian values. The Lord’s Prayer encourages us to ask for our daily bread - not a silo with a lifetime’s worth of food.
This is the cultural water I swim in, so making big changes can be challenging. I try to do small things: order from large corporations less, buy from local businesses more, and be a customer of companies that are known to treat their employees well and pay a living wage.
I’m constantly trying to assess for myself what is enough. What does my family actually need versus want? How can we use the monetary, educational and emotional wealth we have to help, serve and bless others?
I’m currently listening to a book that talks about how white Americans are Free, but Black and Brown Americans are Freed. There’s no denying that a certain privilege is afforded to me as a middle class white woman. What I try to do is acknowledge this privilege and use it to help others. I also have tried to help my daughters understand their privilege and the responsibility that comes with it - i.e. that we use our vote for the betterment of the world not our own personal gain. My hope and longing is that seeing my privilege, acknowledging it and using it wisely will be one small way to make our world more socially just.
As with all of the other aspects of my Rule, I am imperfect at living a socially just life. But I am striving to be more aware and to be a better citizen. If I ignore the broken systems around me, these systems will never change. And while I can’t single handedly change our justice system, our educational system or our healthcare system, I think it’s a good first step to notice their brokenness. (My first spiritual director frequently told me this was the way to deal with my own brokenness - it was enough to notice it first before I began to try to do something about it.)
What are the ways you try to live a socially just life? Do you have one cause that stirs your passion or is your focus on change a broad one? What big or small steps are you taking?
Jesus loved all. He ate with the reviled. He touched the untouchable. He suggested that those without sin cast the first stone. His version of a just world is the one I long for. May I help hasten its coming in any small way I can.
Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately
via audiobook:
To Free the Captives by Tracy Smith
This book covers a wide range of topics, but I’m enjoying Smith’s honesty and storytelling.
via library loan:
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
This was a less engaging and well written time travel book than my recent read The Husbands. It was predictable all the way through but I kept reading anyway because I liked the views of the book publishing and restaurant cultures.
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I loved the Winternight trilogy, so I was excited to read this new book by Arden. It’s very different than the folklore world of The Bear and the Nightingale, but I’m enjoying Arden’s take on World War I through the experiences of an army nurse and her soldier brother.
May our eyes be opened to big and small injustices - and may our hearts show us what to do about them.
Love,
Shannon