Do you have the privilege to complain?
I cannot remember the last time I saw someone complaining with a smile on their face. May be if you are smiling, it isn’t considered complaining at all. It could pass off as just another narration of your problems. Perhaps, being able to complain is a privilege. Perhaps, most of us cannot afford it.
I looked at her, sitting next to me, in her neat school uniform. Her animated expressions, her dimpled cheeks and broad smile had me in complete awe. Without changing her expressions for even a moment, she told her friend that the sole of her right shoe was torn. “It feels like I am walking barefoot. It hurts a bit,” she said while moving her foot in a to and fro motion. I could almost feel her pain, the bruises on the sole of her foot. I looked at her, pained by the revelation. She didn’t flinch, she didn’t frown. All she did was to smile in complete innocence. And just like that the girls kept chatting, about what, I cannot really recall now, for I got lost in thoughts of my own.
I tried imagining what I, as a kid, would have done in her situation. Would I have cried or would I have thrown a tantrum? It is difficult to even imagine that my mother who used to be so particular about my school uniform would ever let such a catastrophe happen. At this point, I could feel my privilege. The privilege I grew up with and the privilege that I have now.
Isn’t it true that the more we have, the more reasons we find to complain? If all I care about is getting a four-square meal, would I feel privileged enough to complain about the heat or the filth on the streets or the unpaved roads? If all I care about is having a roof over my head, would I feel privileged enough to complain about the breeding mosquitoes or the tattered mattress or even my tattered clothes? As sad as it is, money buys us many privileges and with it, the power to complain.
If someone were to tell us that for each time that we complained, we would lose a penny, would we continue to complain so fervently then? Most certainly, not! What I am trying to say here is that it shouldn’t be the fear of loss driving us; it should rather be the appreciation of abundance.
With overwhelming thoughts, I reach my destination. Like every other day, when a person shoves me through the wild crowd, I decide to not frown. I just smile and walk on.
