'you deserve it'

One street, two girls, last nights channel 4 documentary
The one girl lived in the 'affluent area' went to a fee paying school, got driven around by her Mum, had her own bedroom and a lovely garden. The other a young 17 year old who left school at 13, had a little brother of 5 and a Mum who didn't work and suffered with depression.

It could be said that the girl with the wealthy life style was bitter, she had not yet had the chance to work but was studying at a good school paid for by her parents. She didn't like the fact that people lived on benefits and didn't try to make something of their life.

The girl from a difficult and poor background, was resigned to her lot, not necessarily bitter but unable to get out of where she was at. With little money her fear was of what others as they filmed would say about her. She worried about her mother. They appeared pretty hopeless in their situation and had little where with all to make it better. An unspoken love for her mother and brother came across.

The other girl was outspoken about her standard in life and felt she was deserving of it. Her fear was to walk along 'the other end of the road' the very real fear of being mugged even knifed.This girls mother didn't allow her to walk in certain areas and had a superior attitude as they drove around the nearby streets. There was no outward portrayal of their love as a family except one that tried to protect and defend.

Two girls who eventually met. The one girl dressed up and tried to look her best, the other dressed down and tried to blend in. They both chewed gum, they both straightened their hair with hair straighteners, they both shuffled along the road and talked about the local area from their own perspective. From the outside they very nearly looked the same.

Each girl asked the other the wrong questions because of assumptions they made of each other..sometimes they laughed, sometimes there was silence...
The girl from the wealthier background was more understanding after their acquaintance, the other girl realised that although she had so much less she wasn't very different.

Such was this filmed observation of two lives.

It is only when you know someone that you get a bearing on what makes them who they are. Much of what we think is our own, is only the influence of where we come from.
I am grateful for the cushioning I have received in life way before I even lifted a finger to make anything happen. I don't know what sort of a life I would make for myself if my start was one with a mother who was depressed in a council flat and a little brother who had no bed to sleep on...and then I think to myself how can I make assumptions about others when I have had it so good?

In the 'current economic crisis',we watch as money we had put aside and money we had saved blows around like the wind, we never held it in our hands, we knew it was there if we needed it but our day to day needs are met and we have accumulated other things that we seem to never even use.

There are so many people in our own country who hold their money in their hands and watch it go week by week or even by day, there are people in the world who rarely hold much money in their hand and when the grain fails and the weather is severe their world crumbles even further.

As I make another cup of tea and grab a biscuit for myself I am yet again enjoying the benefit of where I come from .... I don't know if I deserve it...