Poverty

My uncle use to say “I’ve been broke but never poor”. He died last year and I miss his stories and his wisdom. He was a wealthy man in many ways.

There are many people in this world who are struggling just to make it through a day. They are poor. My mom use to tell me how hard the Depression was. Always wondering about the next meal or how to keep the family together. Everyone worked; everyone contributed if they could. Days were long.

So I look around me and feel blessed for all I have. I’ve heard it said “history repeats itself if we fail to learn life’s lessons”. Are we repeating history now? Is there a lesson we failed to learn? The news today makes me physically ill. It is full of hate and laced with sarcasm. How did we get here?

I’ve started painting pictures of how hard life was back in the 30’s and 40’s. Kids worked and they learned to do without. Even today we know that kids are going to bed hungry, are being sexually assaulted and abused or assuming responsibilities that only adults should have.

I want us to remember how our decisions effect our children. How our words and actions effect our children. We as adults are responsible for our children and their future. I want to remember the past so I can do better with the future.