I joke about elitism,
try it on, with half-sarcasm, as a badge
and it is true that
I chafe at anti-intellectualism.
Ignorance is not a pretty thing.
But I am trying to remember that
not all the people I meet
have had the children’s library cards,
the blue ribbon schools,
the warm rooms and warm hugs.
Opportunities and affections I’ve known as givens
are not distributed to all,
nor even by desert.
(For some they are just dreams,
or things never thought to be wished for.)
This I try to remember
when I crawl inside my crustacean’s shell
and don’t quite dumb myself down
but edit my words into small talk
because I don’t think anyone will get my sarcasm here.
It makes my skin crawl
to edit out pithy remarks and politics
and it makes me hate
(mostly myself).
So I try to remember that the great do not laugh at the less-fortunate
nor the less-informed.
The great do not stand on a pedestal above others,
they lift them up.
