Mother Theresa once said and I quote. “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” We ask “how can anyone be unloved and uncared for in our society?” Even the animals of the forest, and the birds of the air will fight to the death to protect their young. They will find nourishment and no matter how hungry they are themselves, eat their fill and then purge it for their babies to eat. Not a delicate analogy I know but it shows you where their priorities are and where ours fail. And to think, we call ourselves the top of the food chain.
I know poverty when I see it and talk about it because I once lived it. I once complained to my grandfather that it was demoralizing to see my classmates in school, dressed to the hilt in the latest fashions and I was wearing hand me downs from my cousin. My grandfather told me, “No one cares what you are wearing and if they do, that’s a flaw in their character and you don’t need them. Just be humble. So you see even though I lived in poverty, I was loved and sometimes its hard for kids to understand it that way but as you age you remember less and less the things you went without, but you will never forget those that loved you.
Even in old age your friends and family are the glue that binds your life together. I am no longer living in poverty and haven’t for a long, long time. In fact, my needs are few and easily met but yet I crave love and attention still, as do most of us. When I was young man there was a song that became popular called “Little Things mean a lot.” There were a couple of verses from that song that I never forgot and they went like this. “Blow me a kiss from across the room. Tell me I’m nice when I’m not. Touch my hair as you pass my chair. Little things mean a lot. Give me your hand when I’ve lost my way. Give me your shoulder to cry on. Whether the day is bright or gray. Give me your heart to rely on.
We have become so materialistic. Such Me people. Give me cars, give me electronics, give me boats and toys. Well I’m here to tell you that I have had all of these things in my life and my satisfaction was short lived. My real joy came from the people I have met and loved and enjoyed life with. Long after I am gone ,those materialistic things I had will be gone too. But the love I gave, will live on in those who gave me that heart to rely on.
I go back to my hometown from time to time. I always drive down the street I used to live on. The old house, AKA shack, is gone and in its place is an empty lot. On one corner of that lot still stands a lilacs bush. The only survivor of a day gone by. I remember my mom in the spring walking to the corner of our yard with her shears to cut a bouquet for the table. Then the well- spring of memories comes flowing out of me and then come the tears for parents and a brother who passed on and then come the memories of Christmas’s and family get-togethers and picnics in the yard. No memories of anything tangible, only the stories and thoughts of a very loving family that once lived and loved and raised some kids in poverty yes, but in a loving atmosphere that today just keeps on giving. I guess it really wasn’t poverty afterall.
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