What Can You Get Used To?

In Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer young Jessie is kidnapped and forced to work upon a slave ship.  The conditions are more than unpleasant and when Jessie comments on them one of the older sailors says, "You have no idea how much you can get used to."  And so I started to wonder, how much can you get used to? A new house?  New job?  Poverty?  Riches? The loss of a loved one?  The addition of a child? A teacher you dislike but are stuck with all semester (if any of my teachers are reading this-its not you)? I think sometimes we underestimate ourselves and when it comes right down to it we really do have no idea what we can get used to. 

Jessie had to live in horrible conditions for months.  Jessie had to watch helplessly as people were kidnapped from Africa and crammed aboard the boat to be sold as slaves.  Jessie had to play his fife to make the slaves dance or else he would be whipped.  Jessie endured constant thirst with only the most meager rations of food. Jessie endured storm after storm and the increasingly foul smells of the ship.  Can you get used to this? 

Jessie proved that you can get used to it-enough to survive and not go crazy, but he also proved that you don't have to succumb to the environment you were placed in.  Jessie fully understood the evil of what they were doing and never took the view of the other crew members that it was just another way to earn a living. He held strong to his beliefs and refused to be corrupted.  He got used to it, but he was changed.  In his adulthood he could not bear the sound of music because it reminded him of the evil he was forced to participate in, he was more grateful for everything he had on land, and he worked to get himself and his family out of the south and away from the horrors of slavery.

Changing for the good even as you get used to your new life...that's kids stuff.