Privilege and Passion

             Passion is a powerful feeling or desire that keeps pushing you forward. Everybody can have their own passion, and have the same rights and freedom to strive for it. In fact, the world that described itself: “ Everybody is equal and all have the same rights” is fulfillment of the privileged. The people living in disadvantage, may even have a hard time looking for a regular job, getting the same pay as others and may not get respected in the society. If we said passion is a compass for life, privilege is your location; if passion is your fuel, then privilege is your fuel tank.

            Privilege comes in different forms; it may depend on your wealth, gender, race etc. The book Bread Giver gives us couple of good examples, Smolisky’s family is living in abject poverty, and the family has hard time putting food on the table. The girls in the family need to work at a very young age; to be educated is never an option for them. Sara, the youngest sister in the family has a passion for education. She tries really hard to try to get into college, but people think she is crazy, even her family doesn’t support her. On the other hand, the kids from wealthy families will never worry about their school, food and any basic needs for living. To be educated is just an everyday routine, nothing special. Based on their family’s wealth and social status, they will have more options of choosing passion. Also, gender comes with privilege. In the Torah, only men have the right to study God, and girls are not deserving of going to heaven, only through the worship of men will they get there. What if the girls have a passion to study god? They will never have that option because of their gender; they don’t have the privilege to do so. There are many considerations in choosing your passion, or striving for your passion. The people who live in privilege have fewer considerations and have absolute advantage towards reading their passions.

            Thus, Privilege and passion are very connected with each other, and privilege plays a very important role to passion.