Better Than I Deserve

When folks ask me how I'm doing I usually answer that I'm doing "better than I deserve." I picked this up from a woman in Letcher County, Kentucky awhile ago and it seems to fit. People who know my story and the stories of some of the men in my life who are closest to me will understand why, but it's also a general statement that I think applies to many more people who I know.

Now, when I give this answer at, say, the grocery store or the gas station here in Oregon I usually get a blank look or no look, and in a natural foods store here I sometimes get some push-back. "Oh, I think everyone deserves the best" is a pretty common response at the natural foods store. Those good people don't know me or some of my friends, or didn't know us at other times in our lives. I appreciate their sense of fairplay and inclusion, though it seems naive to me. In a better world everyone would have the best of everything available and everyone would have the necessities of life, even if it meant everyone having less, so that no one is shut out or excluded. But we're not living in that world yet. One woman at a hardware store here did get it, though, and I knew from her look and her laughter that she's been through a few things.

When I said "Better than I deserve" to people in Central Appalachia I got a different response. I got "Amen!" or some short sermons from folks or a "Bless you, darling!" or a knowing smile most of the time. I love that. And more than loving it, I respect that.

I found this fellow on Youtube last night. You can tell from his look and the way he lays out what he has to say that he has a story. I have not been through the long list of videos on his Youtube channel, but it looks like he's doing some good work. I hope that some of the readers on this blog will look him up.

I didn't know that "Better than I deserve!" is almost a movement, but it makes sense if it is. I'm glad to be a part of that movement---the alternative is far worse.