Guilt

I usually don't think of myself as someone who is prone to feeling a lot of guilt; I can be pretty selfish and that seems to keep excessive guilt at bay. Laying guilt trips on others? I suppose I'm pretty adept at that.

However, guilt does enter my thinking whenever I compare my economic circumstances to people who struggle to get by. I'm not a person of great means but my volunteer endeavors put me in regular contact with people who have far less than I.  Today another volunteer and I were discussing the compassion we feel for the people we serve and I realized compassion and guilt were seeming like two sides of the same coin. What is the difference in these two concepts for you? When does one begin blurring into the other? If/when they do blur, how do you deal with the dis-connect?

I've worked reasonably hard my whole life and do not feel as though I did not earn what I have. And I didn't walk on any backs to get where I am. For the bulk of my professional life I was a musician, a teacher, and a public sector employee - not exactly big bucks professions. But what measure of luck & circumstance played a part in putting me ahead of others economically? And how useful is guilt as a response to that inequity?