Poverty

"For a poor person everything is terrible — illness, humiliation, shame. We are
cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us.
We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." —Blind woman from
Tiraspol, Moldova 1997

Poverty is defined by Dictionary.com , as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence. The site further defines poverty as a state of being poor; lacking of the means of providing material needs or comforts. Real poverty doesn’t care about the color of your skin or what high school you attended; whether or not you were a star on the football field or the class clown; whether you have money in the bank or your last two dollars wadded up in your pocket. A person can be born into poverty or have an unfortunate turn of events like an accidental death or loss of a job that forces them into a life of poverty. In my reality poverty is a state of mind. If you believe you are less fortunate or lacking in your ability to provide for yourself and or your family then you are or will be in poverty regardless of the balance of your bank account. To gain a better understanding of the many definitions of poverty, I only had to reflect upon my own youth.

As a child I used images from television and real-world encounters with bums on the street to determine just where we stood on the poverty scale in my home. In my youthful eyes we were impoverished because we only had a beat up car and I had to walk several miles to school and home each day because my folks had to work whatever hours their jobs had available to just to make ends meet. I never had the newest clothes or shoes. Regular visits to the dentist or doctor’s office where for rich folks. My family couldn’t afford to buy me the newest video games or send me on the school band trips with extra money for souvenirs. At times in my youth I was very depressed and withdrawn because I was concentrating on all of the things in life that I didn’t have; like cars and shoes and money in the bank. Instead of reflecting on all of the things that I did have that made me wealthier than any superstar, pro athlete, politician or CEO. It wasn’t until I became a provider for my own family as an adult that I began to realize just how rich my family and I are because we have each other. Just having someone that loves me unconditionally for me without reservations about how many material things I possess or the label on the back of my jeans or the street I live on, makes me a member of the elite.

As former first-daughter Jenna Bush discovered poverty is truly a state of mind. Jenna visited a woman from Latin America whom had been brutally raped and been exposed to HIV. She was unmarried and living without many of the things that we take for granted in America like electricity, running water, abundant food or education. Immediately, Jenna knew that the woman was poor and felt bad for her. Jenna was touched by the woman’s story began writing a book about the woman’s experiences. But we she translated her English depiction of the woman’s life into the woman’s native tongue she was astonished to learn from the woman, that she did not consider herself unfortunate or poor for having her life. In fact, she wouldn’t change a single part of it because of her faith in God. This knowledge empowered Jenna with a new sense of purpose for her book and she began to write a book about hope instead of sadness.

If we only look deep enough within ourselves we can find quite a few similarities amongst our many differences that make us all richer than we can imagine.