A. Blinken
Once Granny Wise told me, "a sheep couldn’t tell you from your friends, and neither can a rich man." Even as a kid I saw the sense of it, and it became one of the things I knew about life: my "betters" often have no clue about what my life, or the average anybody’s life, is like. A really wealthy person’s life is not like mine but more plush; their life is different from mine in every useful category, and that difference puts a distance of understanding between us. If I hit them with my car, I’ll go to jail, my life will be ruined; if they hit me the county couldn’t afford to prove it. If I get sick I wait in crowded offices often catching something else there; if they get sick they’ll be made well in comfort and haste. If I’m hungry I have to decide between pork and the cheapest cuts of beef; if they get hungry rich food comes to them. It doesn’t make them bad in any way, nor do I envy the very rich, as I’ve seen no evidence that they are happier in their lives than I in mine. But it gives me pause when I realize the power they have over my daily life. It is they who govern, though I contribute heavily to their governance both in taxes and in my efforts to be a good citizen. They make laws which seem inappropriate to the reality I experience, which seem to favor those like them and not like me. It makes me wonder how to stop the rich man from governing me, and keep the sheep from helping him.