[October 2005 journal entry]
I am determined to remain aware that my life experiences have had such abundance and privilege that I must consider myself in the less than 1% similarly ‘affluent’ (L., ad + fluere) among all those who have lived during my lifetime. The less than 1% ‘affluent’ classification is relative in that there is a less than 1% experience of ‘affluence’ at every point along the timeline of human history. Is there a less than 1% group at the opposite end of the spectrum? Or do the standard deviations only move away from the masses of people in the ‘affluent’ direction?