A couple inches of good snowball snow is commencing to cover the brown drear outside. The kids have all packed off to go sledding or simply stomp around in it. I, on the other hand, am planning a snowy day nap.
I sometimes feel pretty lightweight about the day-to-day prattle I post here, but I am often reluctant to delve much deeper into some things.
I let drop pretty lightly the "poverty level" issue a couple posts back. It's entirely true. I am both blessed and stressed. We live in a community in an area of the country where even at below poverty level, we keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I get very frustrated with the situation at times, however. We have household repairs and non-life threatening medical issues that are constantly put off instead of addressed. Any little bump in the road (like running out of propane last week) can knock us off track and set us behind. We qualify for certain kinds of assistance, but the bureaucracy involved with obtaining and keeping those programs intact in our home is often paralyzing. Yet when I feel oppressed by these issues, I also feel extremely guilty. For as much as I struggle some days, there are families out there that would be so grateful for what we have. Poverty in America is swept under the rug. In our land of plenty, we try not to think of want. If we extend our view outside the borders of the USA, it's even more shaming. There is absolutely no reason that a nation with the resources and wherewithal of the United States could not provide adequate food, water and shelter to the entire world if it simply WANTED to. I have heard it said that our nation's surplus could feed the world if someone would just pay the shipping and distribution bill. Are we responsible for the rest of the worlds' needs? No. Shouldn't our sense of decency or justice or some indwelling human compulsion drive us to want to help anyway? So perhaps I'm a sentimental git, the kid who cried for lost puppies and bought groceries for the homeless people upstairs. I can't say that's a bad git to be. It also helps me keep swimming.
1 comment:
Glad to hear the party went well. We used to do that with our kids at least once every winter. They loved it.
You can thank me for sending the snow on up after plastering us. A lot of folks round here think 7" is lovely. They don't have to push it around for six hours.
Post a Comment