Geez, I fail to read John Scalzi for a few days and look what all he posts…
First, read this. As the middle-class technocrat son of a middle-class technocrat, I’ve never had to face poverty up-close and personal. It’s important to know, or to remember, what being poor in America really means.
It’s also important to know what being poor in the third-world means, for which read this couterpoint, on absolute poverty.
And then you should read this, on dealing with stress. The downside of living in the information age is that we have access to an unlimited flood of misery, heartache and tragedy piped right into our brains from around the world. I see a lot of anger on my daily blog-and-journal rounds. Sometimes it’s my own. To those who are close to the breaking-point, the advice in the above-linked post is timely:
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
To live in one of those times need not mean turning one’s back on the other.
Being poor…is looking at the kid on welfare and thinking his family is rich because his mom stay’s hom all day. He has a color TV with Cable and an Atari . And gets to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday.
Being poor is making Transformer’s and building the F-14 G.I. Joe fighters out of LEGOs. (The toy that grows up while you do.)
Being poor is eating a lot of white rice…
Being poor is wanting seconds when there are none. And eating firsts cause your mom didn’t eat.
Being poor…is being laughed at for your clothes.
Being poor…is a family of three riding a single moped for 5 yrs.
Being poor is living in a garage with a dirt floor, getting food from churches, and eating lots of baked beans.
Being poor…is saving the butter wrappers (using them to butter your pans, etc.)
Being poor…is the best candy and baked goods in the world. Because flour, water and sugar are cheap. And a little bit of baker’s chocolates go a long way.
Being poor…is never seeing your mom cause she works three jobs and is home only 4 hours to sleep a night.
Being poor is not going on vacations.
Being poor is living in walking distance from Sea World and never going.
Being poor is walking thru the museums alone because children are free and your parents wait outside for your return.
Being poor is coming home from 1st grade to an empty house and making Ramen noodles or cheese quesadillas for yourself.
Being poor…is being pissed off at the classmate who uses his skin color as a statement of poverty but wears $400 in gold jewelry, designer outfit and fashionable sneakers….but couldn’t type his paper cause he’s poor.
Being poor…is seeing a lot of things as special that others take for granted.
Being poor…is still enjoying life and living it to it’s fullest.
Being poor…is using your imagination…cause you don’t have anything else to play with.
(all of these are first hand experiences of mine)
And yes, by the simple fact that I lived in America I was still in the 10% of the richest people in the world.
(Though for a while my mom was one of only 200,000 Americans without a toilet in their home back in 1999.) *lol*
So when I hear that 12% of Americans are under the poverty line I get a little miffed. Especially when many of those own their own houses. Most all have cars and many two cars. And something like 97% have color TVs, cable and DVD players. That’s not poverty….