Gazing in the Mirror

February 16 - Poverty

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for,
forgotten by everybody, I think that
is a much greater hunger, a much
greater poverty than the person who
has nothing to eat.
~ Mother Teresa

The human heart longs as a hungry man
longs for bread, for spiritual food.
It longs for that which will make it whole.
~ Ernest Holmes

Ernest Holmes was born in poverty. Hard economic times continued most of his early life. Yet, philosophically, his parents had a more expansive religious viewpoint than most people had in that era. His parents did believe in the goodness of God, did not believe in a personal devil and urged all their children to come to religion with questioning minds. His first metaphysical concepts came from Henry Drummond's "Natural Law in the Spiritual World". Also, Ernest says "Fortunately, I was brought up by a mother who refused to have fear taught in her family".

During much of my family's recent journey, we traveled through some of America's Reservations that have been set aside for Native American Indians. The financial poverty in these regions was clearly evident in the homesteads that we passed along the way. During our travels I also had opportunities on occasion to speak with Native Americans, person-to-person, simply for whatever reasons presented themselves. The culture and rituals are very rich in history and depth. These 310 American Indian Reservations are separate nations with their own court systems for justice. Many of America's poorest 1% live on such a reservation. Because the land is government-owned communally, it can't be leveraged as collateral and there is little motivation to invest financially in something one has no ownership in. This fact sometimes results in substandard and inadequate housing as well as the absence of some commonly accepted benefits of modern life. For example, we encountered an absence of well-stocked stores which sometimes appeared to be on the verge of financial collapse.

While I was visiting my parents in New Mexico, the church they belong to in a nearby small town had its monthly "community dinner". Of course I recognized only the best intentions motivating this practice of charitable giving to those less fortunate in the community. One day as I was leaving our hotel within a couple of blocks of each other I saw 2 beggars. One sat in a van near WalMart with a red gas can on top and a sign that said "out of gas". Another was in a wheelchair down at the corner intersection, with a dog on his lap and a sign asking for $$$ assistance. When I commented on these to my mother, she quickly identified the man in the wheelchair as one of their regular dinner participants and said that his wife was also disabled.

We attended the dinner with my parents and my youngest sister (who had spent 4 years homeless and may have motivated my mother to begin the dinners at her church before my sister's eventual reconciliation with our parents). It was an interesting experience. What harm could such generosity do ? After the modest dinner (everyone must have something to eat first) a FREE "pantry" is opened. The local indigents line up early for it is a first come/first serve offering with no restrictions on the basic items that the participants are allowed to carry away in plastic shopping bags. Certainly both my own self and my parents are eternally grateful for any and all of the types of assistance that kept my own sister alive long enough to emerge from her darkest days.

This has caused me to wonder about the effects of dependency. Among the Native Americans there are bureaucratic and tribal influences that aren't motivated towards reforms that might raise the standard of living in the financial sense for everyone living there on a reservation. Even though many reservations are rich in natural resources, there is a lack of any reliable governmental, business or judicial climate to secure investments. In our own rural community I have seen "welfare/disability recipients" scatter to separate houses when the government social worker arrives to assess their circumstances in order to maximize the amount of assistance they are able to receive. Then, they gather together collectively once again to improve upon their cost of living to person ratio. I know that the total amount of assistance does not provide a very high standard of living at all.

I have lived in poverty myself. And of course, I don't profess to have answers to such macro challenges to human well-being. Yet my heart ponders ... for its desire and yearning are for the basic well-being of all people. My heart desires that all people be able to have enough basic resources that the individual is able to grow and develop as a social contributor advancing the common good. How does one become the change they wish to see in the world ? For my own self one of the ways I "contribute" to the common good at an individual level is by helping those who seek empowerment to find the source for that quality within their own self rather than looking towards government and charitable assistance for the provision of their basic needs. Even so, I recognize as well that those channels are also part of the wholeness that Spirit utilizes to meet individual needs. All is actually perfect in a spiritual perspective of the world. Still, my heart sends out rockets of desire for "better" yet.

~ perspective

I express compassion and give generously
to those "in need" as my inner guidance
prompts me.
I trust that my expressions of sharing
and caring do not create dependencies.
I honor and respect the individual's right
to feel cared for by Source in confident
receiving.
I have sympathy for the impacts of
unfortunate events and do not see these
as chronic conditions.
I support all efforts to provide the basics
of human dignity to all people.

#beggars #church #communication #dependency #disabilities #empowerment #fear  #gratitude #homelessness #wholeness