Yesterday's LeGuin quote got me thinking about my own blind spots. How can I, a highly-educated, capable Anglo adult white male, hope to understand the experience of a weak, disadvantaged, or disrespected minority?

Hope came to me from another quote in my writing file, this time from Maria Montessori:

"No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child . . . No slave was ever so much the property of his master as the child is of his parent . . . Never were the rights of man ever so disregarded as in the case of the child . . ."

On the surface, her observation sounds discouraging and depressing, but I find hope in it. What this tells me is that every one of us has experienced disability and disrespect. Everyone has had their "rights" disregarded. If we can reconnect to our childhood dependancy, we can understand (to some extent) what it's like to struggle for dignity.

This approach has limits of course. Minority adults face issues and responsibilities from which most children are exempt, such as supporting and caring for dependants, finding housing and employment, and managing their own sexuality, health, and finances. But childhood experiences we all share (like hurtful assumptions and powerlessness in the face of injustice) provide a touchstone for compassion when dealing with less privileged people.