When you say
that you are
blessed
do you mean
to imply
that
I am
not?
When you say
that you are
blessed
do you mean
to imply
that you are
consecrated,
worthy of worship and adoration,
deeply revered and respected,
sanctified?
Do you mean
that you are
supremely favored,
glorified,
a part of the elite?
Or do you mean
that you are
advantaged,
heavenly and godlike,
specially selected?
Blessed.
For when you say
that you are
blessed
you imply
that I
am
damned.
cursed.
doomed for a bad ending.
ill-fated.
unholy.
unsanctified.
depraved.
culpable.
disadvantaged.
blighted and condemned.
cast-out.
Out.
OUT.
What gives you this right?
I cannot believe,
I will not believe,
I refuse to believe
that God finds
you
more worthy
than
me.
Pour Shelly et toutes les autres.
©Maribeth Batcho All Rights Reserved
Unleashed 
Sometimes I feel blessed by the life I am fortunate to have, but I don’t think I ever say it. I see that many are blessed in their lives too, but never in contrast to say another is not. We all have our own bits of blessed-ness. It’s up to us to recognize them.
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I think that some people are more fortunate than others in certain areas of life. I am very fortunate to have my husband, an excellent paying job that I love, the money to live the way that I like to live, but I don’t ever say that I am blessed. I am very lucky to have had my mother here for 86 years. I have overheard many conversations with others who say they are blessed by this or that, but the person they are speaking with hasn’t had that same life experience, and the disappointment is evident. This piece is in response to that. It was intended to nudge people to think. And to further develop me as a novice writer.
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Often I say that I am blessed, but I have never meant that the other person is not. I never even thought my words would be taken that way. But now I see that they could be. I definitely don’t want them to be taken that way. I agree with you. God does not find any of us more deserving than another. Your poem has given me reason to think more carefully about the words I speak. Thank you
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I have wondered about what people really mean when they say “blessed.” As a defrocked Christian cult minister I know some take the word literally to mean “God’s blood on me.” I avoid using the term. I assume now, having returned to my normal liberal leanings, that people merely mean they are showing gratitude. They are recognizing their own privilege whatever it may be.
However, it still begs the question — why do you leave out your listener? I have a bff who says “We’re so blessed…” I nod but there’s a part of me that rankles against the term. By whom? Did the Universe dispense special favor? Am I just finally getting what I always had all along?
Thanks for your thoughtful piece.
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Exactly my point. “We are so blessed. We have 3 children” can be interpreted by the people without children, by no choice of their own, to mean that they haven’t been blessed, when really the having of children, the ability to have a child, is just biology. Being blessed has nothing to do with it. If you are educated and have a good paying job, have you been blessed, or are you just fortunate that this lifetime you have good karma? And what about all of those people who have a good education, come from solid families, work hard, and yet, remain poor? In any case, I thank you for understanding what I was trying to get at, without taking offense, and for your very thoughtful response. I am here to write, to become a better writer; in order for me to do that, the writing has to be with purpose and with emotion, the ability for me to better understand the world and the people in it, or I won’t have the motivation to actually sit and do it.
Merci beaucoup. Encore.
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What a thoughtful post! We are all blessed!
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Hmm. Lots to think about after this post.
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I don’t think of blessed like that. I think of “deserved” like that. When people say things like, “I’m so happy for you, you deserve it.” Blessed to me is more of a sacred word. It makes me sad that it can be taken like that. I struggle to let go of that word, but you have given me something to think about.
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I see your point, understand where you are coming from. But aren’t they the same thing? What makes you blessed and not me? Why do you deserve it, but I don’t? Food for thought…
As I said to L Squared, this writing thing has made me obsessed with writing about the provocative. I think the best writing I have done this month has challenged my own thinking and ideas, and perhaps those of other people as well, though that was never in my mind. It is only through responses such as yours that I have even thought about that. But, without the provocative, my motivation to write doesn’t exist. I am fearful of what happens come April 1, when this challenge is over…
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