Disparity

In my morning pondering of things as they are, things as I’d like them to be, things as they ought to be,  things that irk my soul, things that wrench my heart, things that rankle in my mind, things that make me cry—all sorts of things come into play.  Sometimes the “thing” is a political or social thing, sometimes it is a religious “thing.”  A “thing” is “an object,” in my case, a subject, “that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to.”  Or, a “thing” might be “an action, activity, event, thought (as it is in my case) or utterance.”  

Sometimes the “thing” that comes to my mind is a single word that I may have seen in a book or heard somewhere.  My thing this morning is the word, disparity.  Disparity means “the condition or fact of being unequal, as in age, rank, or degree—difference.”  Synonyms for disparity include words like discrepancy, inconsistency, imbalance, dissimilarity, contrast, inequality—difference.

There are many disparities.  There are racial, economic, gender, age, civil, health and political disparities.  There are disparities everywhere!  Why, there are even disparities between you and me!  The word covers a lot of territory and speaking of “territory” I wonder if there are disparities between Puerto Rico and the states of Texas or Florida.  Of course there are disparities—and one of my “things” this morning is whether a “territory” will be cared for in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria as equally as a “state.”

Along those same lines, I wonder about the disparities of the “have’s and the have not’s” in  Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Puerto Rico and even St. Thomas.  I suspect the tourist sites of St. Thomas will be restored quickly so that the cruise ships have some place to go.  I doubt that the other areas of the island will be restored that quickly, if at all.  The disparity is apparent.

Disparity is a big, big word—it covers a lot of territory.  It is my “thing” of the morning and it will probably engage my thinking throughout the day.

So many people came before us.
So many will come after us.
Will we give them a place?