Today is Blog Action Day and the topic this year is poverty. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, I discovered a blog post titled, “Being Poor”. It began with the following:
*Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
*Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
*Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
*Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
*Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
*Being poor is living next to the freeway.
It goes on to list many, many similar items and then ends with:
*Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
*Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
*Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
*Being poor is running in place.
*Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
That single post received 436 responses. It is truly one of the best glimpses into poverty in America, as well as our responses to the problem. I urge you to take the time to read the entire thing and then go to the Blog Action Day website to learn more about the problem and what you, personally, can do.
From my own experience:
Being poor is having people bring you their handed down clothes that are three sizes too large when you didn’t even ask for clothes. Guess they thought something was better than nothing.
Being poor is a child crying because she had to have surgery and her mom asked her if she really needed it because it would cost money.
Being poor is living without love.
I felt poor as a child, now I’m so very wealthy!
How do you find out about things like Blog Action Day???
btw – being poor in America is a mind set, not a lack of finances.
Being poor in a 3rd world country is real.
Yep Jaci, you are right. The ‘being poor’ blog talked about being poor in AMERICA and that’s what all the posts were about. Blog Action Day dealt with more. I agree with you that being poor in a 3rd world country is really a different type of ‘poor’. Both are real. Both hurt. But American ‘poor’ seems rich to 3rd world ‘poor’.
Just FYI to any who reads this. Our family supports Operation Christmas Child through Samaritans Purse. We create shoe boxes full of goodies and necessities that are delivered to poor children in other countries. It’s a great project. Google it and find out more.
this post reminds me of something my husband recently told me. one of his co-workers asked him how he knew when he had 'enough' money & my husband thought for a moment (remembering when we were money-poor) & said that he knew he had enough money when he could get tires on the care without feeling like he would throw up. those were scary times, driving on bald tires…
thanks for this reminder to count my blessings!