Being Poor

I'm sitting in front of the TV and watching the news about all the hoopla about snagging an XBox; the TennCare debate; workers getting laid off right before Christmas and people talking about dreading the fear about being two paychecks away from being poor or even homeless. Yet, keep spending and mask the denial that the company I work for with great union benefits is deep in debt and will never turn a profit? Keep making the minimum payments on the plastic in the hopes that one day the lottery will come though just for me?
Jesus said the poor will always be among us... so what is our modern day definition of being poor? And better yet, our response? And what if I was affected by Katrina/Rita or a tornado? Last, why does the Christmas season always bring out the tension between gifts, giving and the poor?

So what is being poor all about? John Scalzi has a few bullet points about Being Poor :

• Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
• Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
• Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they're what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there's not an $800 car in America that's worth a damn.
• Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
• Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.
• Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won't hear you say 'I get free lunch' when you get to the cashier.
• Being poor is living next to the freeway.
• Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
• Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn't mind when you ask for help.
• Being poor is off-brand toys.
• Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
• Being poor is knowing you can't leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
• Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.
• Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn't have make dinner tonight because you're not hungry anyway.
• Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
• Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
• Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
• Being poor is your kid's school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
• Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Read on if you need more definitions...

Being poor means dreading the holidays - when there should be so much to be thankful for...

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