I started paying attention to The Atlantic in recent days after having read some excellent pieces, and I’m thrilled that I did. See below for links to them. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/gifts-debts-inheritances/417423/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

On a rainy, New York day people look like an assortment of shiny mushrooms packed tightly, all in a row..

This thought, the one I’ve just had and decided to share was not driven by any literal wait in line, but came as an example in a thought stream. 

I hate waiting in lines. Sometimes I’ll simply not get something or go somewhere because of the lines. Conversely, I love NOT waiting in lines. That can mean that I abort the entire venture so as not to wait, but it might also mean being granted some line-skipping privilege – which I will almost certainly accept. 

I thought to myself: How do I reconcile these notions with not thinking of myself as (intrinsically) better than others, which I certainly do not. 

I think that the difference is that we can be happy to accept certain privileges and even seek them, so long as we don’t come to believe that we simply deserve them, and deserve them exclusively (and exclusively deserve them).