Tag Archives: poverty

Decay

Decay: (v) to become decomposed; rot

 It saddens me deeply that intellectualism is incapable of delivering its promise to our humanity.

I’ve listened for decades to those who contend that education can swerve us out of our natural inclination to crash and burn.

There probably is truth to that.

Knowledge would be a wonderful thing if it did not present itself as all-knowing.  Yes.

There is knowing, and then there is all-knowing.

Knowing is when you discover something and respectfully present it, fully aware that more data is going to come along, which will either enhance your discovery or flat-out contradict it.

Knowledge requires humility.

Unfortunately, the knowledgeable do not favor a humble spirit.

Throughout my youthful times of poverty, I was completely unable to afford going to the dentist. The one or two times I found myself in the holy seat of the tooth doctor, I was told that my teeth were not straight, my wisdom teeth should be removed, and I needed a bridge put in somewhere on the Mississippi River.

All of this was impossible.

And rather than telling me what I might be able to do, the dentist criticized me for being impoverished, unable to take care of my teeth, therefore threatening them with decay.

And decay was his swear-word.

Just uttering the word decay was supposed to make me shudder to the depths of my soul, scaring me into going out and borrowing money from a bank somewhere so I could fund his “toothy project.”

I didn’t do it.

It wasn’t because I was rebellious. But every extra dollar I had went into my career—or shoelaces for my children’s footwear.

If my teeth did not hurt, I assumed they were fine.

If they did hurt, I took lots of aspirin until they stopped hurting.

What has occurred is that as I’ve gotten older, some of my teeth have decided to die and go be with Jesus before the rest of me.

I guess they decayed enough that they just fell out.

I don’t normally share this story with anyone, so if it grosses you out, I apologize.

But it’s amazing. The teeth that remain seem to have greater resolve, fill in the gaps, and I am still able to chew a good steak or bite into an ear of corn.

I don’t know whether I chose the right path.

But I have found that the people who did put thousands of dollars into avoiding decay are now wearing dentures.

I only have a small army left.

But each one of them came with the original fortifications.

 

Das Kapital

Das Kapital: (n) a work (1867) by Karl Marx, dealing with social strata and containing the tenets on which modern communism is based.

Some people view history as an exercise in deciding where to put the hats. I’m talking about choosing which characters get black hats, which get white ones and then, leaving some individuals hatless.

It is over-simplistic.

Das Kapital is a book written by a frustrated man who was tired of the inequity of capitalism.

If he were living today—maybe in his late twenties—he might just be running around wearing a Bernie Sanders t-shirt.

He might be objecting to the treatment of young black men in the urban communities.

And he certainly would be demanding equal pay for women, more respect for aliens entering the country and medical treatment to honor humanity rather than bowing to bank accounts.

Karl Marx basically believed that capitalism was a failed experiment which left too few wealthy, and way too many impoverished.

It is a sympathetic point when viewed solely in the pursuit of all things in life being even.

But as we learned from our friend, Charles Darwin, the universe is not balanced. It operates under “the survival of the fittest,” with creatures crawling over one another to gain predominance.

It’s rather humorous that these two men lived at the same time and their works were being passed around the intellectual community as if they were in agreement.

They were not.

Darwin insisted that the strongest survived.

Karl Marx contended that equality was essential to make society moral.

So which one is it?

Are we supposed to develop a world where everyone is taken care of in some balanced format?

Or does the natural order itself rebel against that idea and applaud the fittest, the strongest and in some ways, the most ruthless?

This is why I have always believed in faith.

For suggesting that generosity, sharing and balancing of goods can be established through the government or the people is a total farce.

No one gives up their turf unless their spirit initiates it. Why? Because we are creatures of Darwin’s drama, trying to find a way to still appear equitable, as in Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.

There you have it.

This is why things are so messy and dishonest.

Any Christian sitting in a sanctuary would find some of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth on point with Das Kapital by Karl Marx.

But that same believer would also find the opinions of Jesus of Nazareth to coincide with Darwin’s Origin of the Species.

For the overwhelming message of Earth is very simple:

The system of the Natural Order is cruel.

So how do we overcome the cruelty?

  • Learn the Earth.
  • Get good at it.

And when you’re successful, strong, in position, share with those you meet who have been left out or overwhelmed by it.

 

Composer

Composer: (n) a person who writes music, especially as a professional occupation

In the classical field they refer to them as “the Masters.”

These are the folks who wrote symphonies, operas and other various styles of composition, which have endured to the present day.funny wisdom on words that begin with a C

Please understand, in their time, many of them received no attention, zero appreciation and often suffered criticism and poverty.

It would seem that their greatest accomplishment was that they died. Once they died, a sentimental streak went down the backbone of all the critics, and they began to view their music from a less cynical position.

So now we consider them geniuses–and we take the composers of our day and ostracize them, cheat them out of opportunity and often make them live in poverty (just so they can die quickly and have their music appreciated).

It is a bizarre system which seems determined to continue because it receives great funding.

 

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Comparison

Comparison: (n) the act of comparing

“Most of the world …”

I think we all have to agree, that’s a pretty bold generalization. To claim that “most of the world” does anything or is anything might be the soil for the seeds of prejudice.

But it is safe to assume that a good portion of this planet gets up every morning not certain there will be anything to put in their food bowl by nighttime.funny wisdom on words that begin with a C

Even though in the United States we have poverty, hunger, to some degree, has become a choice. There’s always someone offering something at some location for individuals who can’t put together enough “bread” for their bread.

But there are people in the world who cannot benefit from such altruism and generosity because those around them suffer under the same lack, and there are a limited number of ways to divide up a tomato.

So when we make comparisons between people in our country and the souls that live on other parcels of land on Planet Earth, we need to be cautious.

Because when you remove starvation, deprivation, filthy water, constant exposure to the elements and inept and often dangerous government, you discover that you possess a treasure trove of blessings.

We are America.

We must learn to judge ourselves by our own talents, fortunes and abilities–not by producing a comparison with countries that dig in the dirt, attempting to grow one single plant from which to eat.

 

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Coin

Coin: (n) a flat, typically round piece of metal with an official stamp, used as money.

Can I tell you when I fell in love with me?

I had flirted with myself for years. But always, at the last moment, I pulled away from true affection for my being because I saw ugliness beneath the surface.

Living so close to me, it often made things tense.

Yes, it was necessary for me to love myself–but it had to be legitimate. It had to be real. It couldn’t be some clever concept pulled from a book by an author promoting self-esteem.

But one night it was put into motion. I had been working on the concept of generosity. I was trying to learn to give a damn about those around me who were socially, emotionally and financially damned.

I had made strides.

Back to my story. I was sitting in my chair, and noticed that a young lady, who had come to dinner, was cleaning off the nearby table, and had taken a dime, a nickel and two pennies that she saw lying next to a glass and threw them in the trash.

She discarded the coins.

I perfectly understood her action–seventeen cents seemed insignificant. She had no available pockets. And holding the coins in her hand while trying to grasp glasses might result in an embarrassing accident.

As soon as she walked away, I retrieved the seventeen cents, ran out to my kitchen, found an old pickle jar and threw the coins inside.

I set the jar on my counter, and I challenged my friends to bring all the change they had that might be tossed aside, and put it in my jar.

Every forty days I took the jar down to the local market and poured it into the coin machine. I was always astounded when I walked away with fifty dollars or more each and every time.

I had fifty dollars to give away to someone in need.

Fifty dollars to buy groceries for a family.

Fifty dollars for the guy on the street who made a sign from a piece of cardboard about his destitution.

And it all came from tossed-away coins.

So let me coin a phrase:

Don’t give up on coins. It may take a while, but they quickly change into dollars which can help those who just never have quite enough.

 

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Cockroach

Cockroach: (n) a beetlelike insect with long antennae and legs, feeding by scavenging

If you wish to impress someone, tell him or her that you’re planning on preparing and serving lobster for dinner.

If for some reason, you are in need of getting rid of an old friend, or just want to keep someone out of your hair, tell him or her you have to get home to set roach traps.

Cockroaches are not just bugs.

They aren’t merely creatures crawling on the Earth, sharing space with us during our sojourn.

There are many annoying things about them. Actually, they hit on ALL the frustration buttons available, sending human beings into a tizzy.

  1. They have been around longer than we have, and according to scientific projections, will be sweeping up after we leave.
  2. They have no standards whatsoever for the joints they frequent, so they carry disease and gunk with them everywhere they go.
  3. They are sneaky, but once they have proof that you’re incapable of destroying them, they’re very willing to crawl into your living room while you’re binge-watching your favorite show and peer at you, mocking you, with full confidence in their little tiny grubby hearts that you will not get up and squash them.
  4. They multiply very quickly and their children seem more obedient to their cause then our own.
  5. And of course, they’re a symbol and stigma of poverty, and perhaps the definition for having a filthy house.

This just pisses us off. Cockroaches don’t care.

They can be exterminated, but not terminated.

They can be discouraged, but not overtaken.

And they can be insulted, and roll right back over to crawl around with their nasty, hairy legs–through all of our things.

I don’t like cockroaches.

I don’t think cockroaches like me.

I’ve had cockroaches.

I fear that cockroaches have had me.

I don’t think we’ll ever work out a deal.

But I hope that someday, when they inherit the Earth, there will be some creature to come along that gives them the creeps.

 

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Clinic

Clinic: (n) a hospital department where outpatients are given medical treatment

Old Marion Webster always tends to leave out a detail or two in presenting definitions.

Clinics are not only places where people go to get medical assistance, but often find themselves frequenting due to poverty.

I’ve been to a clinic. It wasn’t because I doing research for one of my essays. No–I was busted.

Broke. Without bucks. Dollarless.

I found the experience to be humiliating–not because I thought I was better than all the other clientele. It was humiliating by design.

All the furniture was old, scarred, some pieces broken. The magazines were dated at least four years earlier, and had articles which had already proven to be incorrect. The candy machine was empty except for peanuts and Cheese-it crackers. The Coke machine was out of order and the coffee maker had a crack in it, so they could only make one cup at a time.

The nurses were volunteers who attempted to be cheery, but still conveyed a sense of yearning to get over their stint quickly and return to their normal lives.

The people around me were sick–some very sick. It made them look and act dreary.

I sat there and thought to myself, how easy it would be for people of substance and finance to just donate new magazines.

How about that church down the road which recently bought new furniture for their parlor–giving that old plush couch and chairs to this clinic so people would feel just a bit more comfortable as they sat for hours, waiting for a three-minute visit?

Would it kill the vendors to make sure that the candy machine was adequately stocked, and price it just a bit more reasonably for those who have to search longer for quarters?

How about giving them a new coffee pot, or taking up a donation to make the Cokes reappear?

I wasn’t angry over the indifference–just perplexed by the ignorance.

Now that prosperity has crept my way, I have a little extra money every once in a while that might seem like a gold mine for a clinic.

Maybe just buying flowers for the attendants to wear every day. Or if you worry that the patients might be allergic, purchase more colorful scrubs.

For some reason or another, rich people do not feel it’s enough to insult the less fortunate with mere poverty. They want to make sure the experience leaves a bitter taste in their mouths.

 

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Chronic

Chronic: (adj) (of a problem) long-lasting and difficult to eradicate.

There are several maturity banners that are displayed on our human journey. These are truths which are not always comfortable, but if denied, can put us in a chronic state of misery.

For instance:

  1. Nobody is going to do what you want them to do.

People imitate, they steal, they deny that they got what they have from you–but no one wants to admit that they are not autonomous and require assistance..

  1. The fewer categories you put people in, the better off you are.

When you start delineating by culture, color, sexual orientation and even gender, you get yourself in a horrible, tangled mess of misconceptions.

  1. And a third one is the realization that sometimes the solution is more painful than the problem.

Although we extol the value of solving dilemmas, we can often end up in more red tape, difficulty, struggle and misunderstanding than if we just learn to adjust our temperament and approach to the problem.

For instance, it is rather doubtful that poverty will go away. The more we complain about it and compare our levels of indifference, the less people get fed.

Go someplace where they offer two sandwiches for a decent price. Buy two. Eat one yourself and give one to a hungry person on the street.

You didn’t solve the problem–but you also didn’t trap yourself in a chronic search for an unattainable solution.

 

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