Born Rich

I was born into a rich family

And the question that occurs to me now is--

When did I know I was rich?

I might have been around nine

Nine or ten

When I realized that--

Oh, not everyone’s like me

But I still know if that’s just

The concept of being rich

Or if it’s the concept

For a child

Of being different

That we’re all the same

But we’re really not all the same

And we’re not all--

I guess it’s when you realize

For the first time

What an opportunity is

And for a rich kid

That’s really a weird thing

Because you’re given

Lots of opportunities

But there’s nothing--

Like, where other people

Have to go after opportunities

Have to, uh, win them

Or--just pursue them

And then make the most of them--

I was just handed them

And so in that way

I didn’t really understand

What they were

And, uh, I don’t know

If you can understand rich

Until you understand opportunity

And for that to happen

You need to understand

What it is

To not have opportunities

Does that make sense?

So I’m born rich

And nine years later

I look at one of the maids

Who works for my family

And I think--

Gee, I wonder what her life is like

And so I think I asked her

Something about her life

And she didn’t want to tell me

Because it was none of my business, you know

And she wasn’t mean about it

She was just trying to, uh, be professional, I guess

And I get that

But it got me thinking

And so I asked my brother about it

And he said--

She’s poor

The maid, the maid is poor

And I knew what the word poor meant

But I didn’t think

We knew--

Me

I didn’t think I knew

Poor people

And so I didn’t really know

What to do with that

With that information, and uh--

It probably took me

A few years after that

Before I started

Putting together the pieces of--

Of what it meant

To be who I was

With my privilege

With my opportunities

With all of that

That took a long time

And there was definitely

A resistance there

On my part

To really unpack all of that

And say--

Yeah, I had these opportunities

Because I’d like to think
I could have gotten them all

Without being born who I was

But the truth is

There are just--

There are just doors that don’t open

Unless you’re born--literally born, the way I was--

Into a certain situation

And the only remedy I can think of for that

Like, in the short-term

Would be to have people like

Constantly looking out saying--

Who can I share this with?

Like, who can I help up?

Because otherwise you just have to be--

I mean, I shouldn’t say

Born rich

I should say born lucky

Really, I mean--

That’s what we’re talking about here