(Prepare yourselves, I'm about to rant.)
So our church is doing this "week of solidarity" thing. Your suppost to spend the week living on a food budget of two dollars a day. I think that number is high, but for this "week" that is what the "poor" of the world live on. Let's stop right there! Poor, what exactly does that mean? From Dictionary.com
Poor
[poo
r] 
Show IPA adjective, -er, -est, noun–adjective| 1. | having little or no money, goods, or other means of support: a poor family living on welfare. |
| 2. | Law. dependent upon charity or public support. |
| 3. | (of a country, institution, etc.) meagerly supplied or endowed with resources or funds. |
| 4. | characterized by or showing poverty. |
| 5. | deficient or lacking in something specified: a region poor in mineral deposits. |
| 6. | faulty or inferior, as in construction: poor workmanship. |
| 7. | deficient in desirable ingredients, qualities, or the like: poor soil. |
| 8. | excessively lean or emaciated, as cattle. |
| 9. | of an inferior, inadequate, or unsatisfactory kind: poor health. |
| 10. | lacking in skill, ability, or training: a poor cook. |
| 11. | deficient in moral excellence; cowardly, abject, or mean. |
| 12. | scanty, meager, or paltry in amount or number: a poor audience. |
| 13. | humble; modest: They shared their poor meal with a stranger. |
| 14. | unfortunate; hapless: The poor dog was limping.
Ok, so now we understand the word we are throwing around.
Correct my math if I am wrong. I feed my family of 4 for $450.00/month. That doesn't include detergents and soaps and stuff this is just food.
$450.00 / 30days= $15.00 per day (for a family of 4)
$15.00/ 4 mouths= $3.75 per day per person.
Is this easy, not by any strech of the imagination, but it is do-able. Yah, we eat a lot of beans, rice, eggs, and the like, and imagn this WE LIKE THEM!!! But we are not starving by any means. With proper planning, and useing coupons, shopping at save-a-lot and the like we are able eat comfortably.
Do I consider myself poor? No-and here is why. I have friends, and family, a roof over my head, children that I love to spend time with, and a husband I love with all my heart (and I knwo he loves me too). We live a comfortable life.
If you really want to live a "week of solidarity". Try moving into the tent city in Athens in January, with only a coat. No sleeping bag, no creature comforts. Then talk about being able to relate to the "poor" in our community.
|
3 comments:
Actually, for the record... the "poor" live on $2 a day. That includes housing, transportation, education, clothing, food, etc.
But that would have been a little unreasonable to ask, wouldn't it?
Glad to see that the $2.00/day is all inclusive. Yah, that probably would have been unreasonable, but I don't, from reading the other posts, believe that was made clear to the ones per-taking this week.
That being said, I am not doing it and my reason is simple. I WAS the child who watched my parents go hungry so my brothers and I could eat. We where never homeless, we lived with my grandmother, but I remember a winter when my parents had to choose between paying the heating bill or the water bill, and they paid the heating bill which meant we where melting snow for all of our water consumption, cooking and bathing. I watched my grandma not get prescriptions filled because she didn't have the money to pay for them. So, no, I am not doing it. I lived it, and am thankful for being where I am now.
Remember I grew up in Michigan.
Post a Comment