Wealth

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Although I strive to “never say never”, I feel that this may be one of those times.  I will never bemoan how “poor” we are again.  Today, I encountered yet another homeless vet on the on-ramp, and having only a mere $1 in my purse, I gave it to him (you have probably read about what a “sucker” I am in another post).  The ultimate irony is that I was on my way to pick $10/gallon raw milk.  The light was red, and he briefly shared his predicament with me.  From Alaska, so the cold nights were not too bad, so he said.  And he needed a kidney transplant.  I know a little how the VA system works, and knew he might die before he gets it.

Seth wanted to know who he was, why I was talking to him, and why I gave him money.  It was the perfect chance to teach him about compassion, although I have to say the experience left me learning more about gratitude than all of the 30 Thanksgiving Days of my life.  It helps that Seth asks a lot of “why?” questions.  “Why is he homeless?  Why doesn’t he have food?  Why can’t he work?”

And here I am, in my relatively new VW station wagon (a 2004), which we still owe roughly $6,000 on, giving him a mere dollar.  I almost went back to pick him up, and cook him a decent meal.  Less out of guilt, and more out of gratitude of what he taught me.  I am not poor.  I have never known what being poor is like.  Not really.  There was a period when I was 6 that we were “homeless” but we went and lived with my Dad’s family in California, still managing to attend a private religious school, and I vaguely remember a trip to a cabin in the mountains.  We always had nice clothes, even if they were handmedowns, we had toys, we had food, we had a roof over our heads.  We had shoes, we had coats.  I’ve only once slept outside and that was in college and by choice (and not very far from my dorm room, either!).  Of course, seeing these guys out there, always drives home the thin line that lies between where we are and where they are.  It’s a fine line for a lot of people these days.

As I was answering Seth’s questions, I said to him, “Wow, we’re really lucky, aren’t we?”  And it does come down to that, in these economic times.  There are people with multiple college degrees who can’t even get a job at the supermarket, and yet we’re sitting here, a decent job, a nice car, our little place, our pantry stocked, toys and books cluttering up every crook and cranny.  How in the world did we get so lucky?  The universe is truly smiling on us.

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