I found Wednesday’s GRS class, led by Mercedes and Dr. Shafik Dharams, both interesting and thought provoking, as I’m sure we all did.  The most shocking revelation to me was when Dr. Dharams asked the class who considered themselves rich, there were only two people in the class who put up their hands to say that they felt “rich”.   Those two people were me and one other girl.

                It was difficult to form a lucid explanation on the spot, but I felt I managed to touch on a couple of components which are fundamental to my understanding of wealth: a happy, healthy family, and always having food and shelter.  By Google’s simple definition, rich is “Having a great deal of money or assets, wealthy.”  This may be what comes to mind for most people.  To me, the definition is something closer to one of those supplied by the Mirriam-Webster: “2. a : having high value or quality,   b : well supplied or endowed”.

It is always dangerous to assume, but I would have assumed that most of our GRS class is, by my definition, “rich”;  perhaps not in all aspects of life, but in at least a few of the fundamental areas.  Then again, maybe the majority was thinking more in terms of monetary wealth, but even still, to be living in Vancouver and managing to somehow afford a degree at UBC (a very expensive degree, as Dr. Dharams pointed out near the end of the lecture), those students are either well off financially, and / or rich in opportunity.

I have always considered myself fortunate.  Perhaps that is why I was compelled to raise my hand.  Despite the fact that my family has always been happy and healthy, and that there are rarely anger or negative emotions in the house, there have definitely been times when we were not rich in assets or finances.  When I was quite young, there were large bags of rolled oats in the pantry that were breakfast for a long of time.  That kind of stuck with us – I was never allowed a full bowl of sugary cereal – half of it always had to be plain rolled oats, and my Mum got to decide what half was, since my brother, sister and I had a much chintzier estimation of “half”!  Yet I don’t have any memories of ever being unhappy with what I had in life, or of wanting more.

Rich is not the word I would generally use to describe myself, and it may have been in light of the video that we had just been shown that I felt compelled to raise my hand.  Although the concept of being “rich” comes into my life and mind often, in that I feel very blessed with what I have – perhaps its meaning is too readily misunderstood as having expensive material assets rather than the less tangible concept of wealth.