Never poor

Last night Andrea and I watched a story about a lady who is covering entertainment news for CNN. When she was a kid she had nomadic parents who lived any place that would provide shelter. They lived in their car, in card board boxes, and in run-down shacks. Their home was without running water and electricity because they couldn’t pay the bills. She tells of how she and her brother picked up coal from the side of the road to heat their house and scavenged food from the school trash cans. What’s amazing to me is she says she didn't have any sense that her family was poor. She felt that she was living a normal life.

I’ve heard other people say things similar. People who’ve live through the depression who knew life was hard but they never considered themselves poor.

My grandmother lived on a small amount of social security and was astounded to hear on the news that her income was below the poverty line. She was such a model of generosity even though she had very little.

Stories like these have so much to say to me about my level of contentment and the beast inside of me that always demands more.