Privileges

Out with a couple of friends the other night chat turned to reading and I mentioned that the household I grew up in had both a jr and adult set of encyclopedias as well as multiple bibles, and generally a wide variety of reading material that augmented our public school education.  I tend to take this for granted as just something you do but one of my companions asked if my dad was a college professor which threw me. Then they went on to say that her household didn't put that kind of emphasis on education as her mother was a housewife and her father in the military.  It was kind of trippy to me since that is the same configuration of my family.  Technically I know all families aren't as bookish as mine but I haven't actually spent any time with them. No matter the social standing or income of the members of my extended family reading, education, and knowledge acquisition are valued things. It also happens that the friends and intimates I've had have been similar.  The first time I went to someone's house and there weren't any books out I was flabbergasted, the idea that people can live without books of some kind was and still is honestly, rather hard to fathom. I guess sometimes it's hard to recognize the privileges you're raised with since whatever life you have as a kid is just normal.