The Marginalized

For the past fifteen years or so, I have been hearing the term "marginalized" or "the other," especially as it applies to life and literature. In our spiritual formation class this past Sunday, however, one of the speakers on the DVD series Living the Questions said something remarkable: those who are in the middle and upper classes are actually the marginalized.

In many ways, the speaker seems to be right on in his analysis in that the majority of the world's people struggle day to day to provide food for their family, to pay for medical bills, and to ensure the family resides in decent housing. The percentage of those who live comfortable lives throughout the world is now quite small. We have indeed become the marginalized.

Perhaps I have been out of the extreme world of want too long to empathize properly with the majority, but I hope not. Even though I have been retired for two years, my husband and I are making it financially thus far. We do wonder, however, about the years ahead--especially today with the gloomy economic forecasts as the stock market reopens after Martin Luther King Day. Many of us thought we had planned ahead properly with our retirement accounts and the hope of Social Security payments until death. What we did not count on was the impossibility to sell our dream house in our old location; the huge jump in the price of gas; the steady, rapid rise of groceries; and the continuing increase in medical costs.

It appears that all of us, even the wealthy, are moving more into the world of the majority. The question is, "How can we assist those who do not have as much as we do?" Do we hoard what we have in hope of better days ahead, or do we continue to give of our time and treasure to those in extreme poverty like the homeless? I believe the only choice, in order to be fully human, is the latter.