FirstLight
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Fri Sep-18-09 04:55 PM
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I replied to this post and wanted you guys to come and give your 2 cents... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6581207The end of the post (mine) regarding the positives of poverty - literally wrote themselves! the New Earth is afoot! ...can you feel the winds of change?
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get the red out
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Fri Sep-18-09 07:55 PM
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1. Reminds me of a book I just read |
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I just finished reading "The Color of Water" by James McBride, your post sounded so much one of the running themes I took from that book. It is about the author's mother, a white widow raising her 12 bi-racial children in the turbulent 60's and 70's in a New York housing project. They all graduated from college and most of them got professional degrees, and they were absolutely dirt poor.
When I hear my parents talk about growing up in a coal town in the 40s everybody was poor, but they didn't look at it the way people look at it now, as if you are only worth the amount of money and possessions you have. They all looked at each other as having enough, equally just enough. During WWII people would trade ration stamps to be able to get what was needed for their individual families. They worked together in ways like that to make sure everyone had what they needed. Going back another generation, my Grandfather used to talk about having nothing and living on a farm, but they had food and his Dad worked in the mines so their family of 9 or 10 kids still took in in 3 or 4 more children of relatives who weren't getting by at all. That's how people looked at poverty back then, whether they were getting their needs met and if others were taken care of. Now not having is simply despair, and there isn't much of a leg up for people when they become unemployed, you can't remake yourself it seems.
I tend to worry and fret over the budget of the University where I work as a secretary, I have come to cherish my job. Past are the days when I thought I had nothing being a lowly office drone, I feel like a rich person looking at all the people in this country without health care, no retirement, no income. It has really brought a lot of actual gratitude for what I have into my life. My job was and is looked at as nothing, but I feel like I have everything because I have my needs met. I didn't see it that way before the recession, I felt like I hadn't turned out well enough. A lot of attitudes are changing and changing fast. It is time we respected any and all the work people do in our country, it is time to have some actual community back. Past time. I am starting to wonder if loosing the real feeling of community might be a big reason that we have fallen so far so fast, the reason the unions have been busted and the reason it is easier to convince people that their neighbors don't deserve health care; and fool them that they won't be in the same despair as neighbors next week.
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FirstLight
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Fri Sep-18-09 08:47 PM
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the positives and negatives are so huge...that it is easier to hate than to help...OLD PARADIGM
we are no longer going to be concerned with just , having enough...we will assist eachother in fulfilling their best and highest purpose...THAT will be the measure of the NEW PROSPERITY
;)
thanks GTRO! :hug:
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SheilaT
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Fri Sep-18-09 10:21 PM
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3. I can only speak for myself, but |
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I've suffered a great loss in income in the last year or so, and there are some truly good aspects. I've rediscovered the joys of the public library, instead of buying books. Since I almost never eat out anymore, and I have a pretty tight food budget, I've been able to lose 25 pounds, and would still like to lose 15 more. I'll probably do it. I'm working on crocheting through my yarn stash, and when I get back in the mood to embroider I have many things to embroider. I would like to be able to make more day trips, since I've only lived in this state (NM) for a year, and there's a lot to explore, but I have to think carefully about the cost of gas and so on.
Still, it could be a lot worse, and I'm grateful for what I have.
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u4ic
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Sat Sep-19-09 05:39 PM
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4. I had an experience similar to yours |
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I got very sick, my income dropped to almost nil, had to trust and rely on others (that took a long time for me), and in the process, became more environmentally aware (eg. it was through having to reuse things that I started seeing the value of it), and more socially aware (even through the isolation, I had a bird's eye view) - understanding poverty and disability from the inside.
I went through quite a positive transformation, but I had to hit some very low lows first.
I'm glad it manifested in good change for you. :) Good luck with your travelling - NM is a state I'd love to explore, too.
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Fire Walk With Me
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Mon Sep-21-09 05:22 PM
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5. Thank you for the reminder to just relax... |
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