espressothoughts

A wildly self indulgent celebrity posts yet another picture of her Birkin. I scroll. The next thing I see is a malnourished child in Gaza, holding out his hands for food.

One minute I’m looking at a handbag that costs more than most people will ever have sitting in their bank account. The next, I’m looking at a child who doesn’t even know where his next meal is coming from.

Tell me how I’m supposed to look at that and not feel sick.

And no, this isn’t because I’m jealous. Of course I want to be rich. I want enough money to build a beautiful life for myself, own a beautiful home, travel, take care of the people I love, and have the freedom to buy the things I genuinely want without constantly worrying about money. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I don’t want that.

I do.

But I also don’t think I’d ever want my wealth to become something I constantly need to prove to everyone else.

Another Birkin. Another BMW. Another watch. Another luxury vacation. Another brand partnership.

Like… at some point, what are we actually trying to prove?

Because I genuinely don’t understand it.

One minute you’re watching someone show off a closet full of handbags, and the next you’re seeing children starving, families without clean water, animals being abandoned, beaten or euthanized because shelters don’t have enough space or money to care for them.

I think about this stuff way more than I’d like to.

Sometimes I literally can’t sleep because I start thinking about dogs sitting in overcrowded shelters, dogs being starved, animals being abused, children going hungry, people who can’t afford basic medical treatment.

And then I open Instagram and there’s another luxury haul.

I genuinely cannot make the disparity make sense in my head.

And before anyone says I’m asking wealthy people to give everything away, I’m not.

Buy the Birkin. Buy the house. Enjoy your money.

But do something with it too !!!!

If you’ve been blessed with an extraordinary amount of wealth, why not use some of it to save someone’s life? Fund a shelter. Feed a child. Pay for someone’s medical treatment. Support an organisation that is actually doing the work.

Your money can do more than make you look rich.

And I think that’s what bothers me most. It’s not the wealth itself. It’s when the wealth becomes the entire point.

Especially when the world is going through something horrific.

During COVID, while millions of people were struggling to pay rent, buy groceries and keep their businesses alive, we were watching celebrities sitting comfortably in enormous mansions, showing us their lives like nothing was happening.

And during the war in Gaza, while children were starving and losing their homes, we continued seeing luxury vacations, designer purchases and brand partnerships all over our feeds.

Maybe some of these people are donating privately. Maybe they’re doing incredible amounts of charity that we’ll never know about. I genuinely hope they are.

But sometimes I just think…

Read the room.

You don’t have to stop being rich. You don’t have to apologise for having money. You don’t even have to stop buying luxury.

Just don’t let the flaunting become the most important thing you do with it.

Because your Birkin will sit in your closet for years.

A hungry child can’t wait years.

Your tenth handbag will still be there tomorrow.

An abandoned dog might not be.

And maybe that’s the part I can’t get out of my head.

If God has given you more than you could ever need, maybe some of that excess can go somewhere else.

Maybe it can feed someone.

Maybe it can save someone.

Maybe it can give someone a second chance.

Because honestly, I’d rather have a little less sitting in my closet and know that some of my money helped someone stay alive.

Your Birkin is beautiful.

But a child’s life is worth more.