Is There an Answer?

Hope y’all enjoyed the pictures of Creed. Cool place. I helped out at the shelter all day Saturday. They had a bed bug problem and were fumigating. We had to wash the sheets, blankets and pillows, and clean up the rooms and mattresses. It was a long day. Sunday I just relaxed. Took some longer bike rides and my ass actually didn’t hurt. What a joy. Did play some tennis for the first time in 25 years. I wasn’t very good 25 years ago, and certainly didn’t improve with time, but it was fun. Perhaps I did improve on whether I cared that I was good or not.

Today I had an interesting interview. Since I have been warned of confidentiality, I can’t go into details. Let it be enough to say that people get themselves in trouble without really realizing it. I think we always believe that love is enough and will sustain us forever. But somewhere that logic fails for some. In the best of cases, both parties can continue on, being friends and being mutually responsible. But in others the love that existed becomes adversarial; one person suffers significantly, struggling to maintain some sort of concept of family and home. Responsibility and integrity take back seat to money and the new “friend”.

How much government money do we spend on trying to force people to do the right thing? Can we really force people to do the right thing? As always, gray becomes the color of choice. So many different stories, so many circumstances, not a single answer to solve the problem.

I started reading about the rural homeless initiative today. It is a fascinating proposition. But still begs a question. If much of homelessness is caused by unemployment, or the ability of the person to maintain employment, providing a home doesn’t solve the problem. It does provide the person a base, and that is essential, but the question of making enough money to pay rent, food, health care, and utilities still remain. Unless some source of income is provided, the ability of the individual to right themselves becomes impossible. Perhaps Roosevelt had the right approach with the WPA. But this would likely require more taxes. Heaven’s forbid we ever think of that.

I thought things would become clearer to me here, trying to understand and come up with a logical approach. But I believe when it comes to the nations’ impoverished there may not be a logical way to handle things. It becomes a question of conscience, and how much we are willing to give up so others can have. It also becomes a question of pride of our country. Are we proud of our individual success, or the fact that as a nation we take care of all of our citizens? What is the balance?

If you have an answer, let me know. I certainly am open to suggestions. My job allows me to patch, but not fix. Hearing and seeing people’s plight makes me realize that just throwing money to keep people living on the edge often only prolongs the inevitable. You can see where some of these people are going and know there is nothing you can do except give them a few more months when hopefully they will get a break. Talk about faith.

Peace to you all. Be grateful daily for what you have, for it can change rapidly. Be diligent with your friendships and don’t take them for granted. In the end it is the love we have for each other that is our true wealth.