re-focus
It's been over a year since I last posted on this site. Since then I have graduated with my MPA degree, gotten married, and been hired for jobs I never anticipated. My poverty thoughts--which were so focused during my graduate program--have only been little wifts here and there while I have been caught up in the "real" world (i.e., outside of school).
This morning I want to re-focus on poverty. I'd like to experiment with how to help with poverty in my new role--outside the classroom, married, and with a different job. I have a few books I'll be reading in the next while to sharpen the saw, but what I'd like to comment on now is what I've been doing for the last year to help poverty.
My husband and I made an early goal in our marriage to dedicate a portion of our money each month to a cause we thought would be worthwhile. Sometimes we have contributed to established instituations; other times we have shared with neighbors or friends in need. The amount is not large enough to be a great help to others, but it is enough to help us remember that we co-exist with others in smaller and larger communities.
And maybe that is a way to successfully approach poverty. Back in agrarian times, people were inter-dependent. Now, we are fiercely independent--and, in some ways, fiercely dependent. Independence is not necessarily a bad thing--as long as it is tempered so we reach out to others AND accept reaching in from others. Dependence, on the other end of the spectrum, is not a good thing. I'm not very comfortable with the trend toward dependence we see in our current political situation. It reeks of thinklessness, laziness, and unequally forced equality.
So perhaps inter-dependence is something that should be looked at more carefully as a viable way to dealing with inequality in terms of poverty.
This morning I want to re-focus on poverty. I'd like to experiment with how to help with poverty in my new role--outside the classroom, married, and with a different job. I have a few books I'll be reading in the next while to sharpen the saw, but what I'd like to comment on now is what I've been doing for the last year to help poverty.
My husband and I made an early goal in our marriage to dedicate a portion of our money each month to a cause we thought would be worthwhile. Sometimes we have contributed to established instituations; other times we have shared with neighbors or friends in need. The amount is not large enough to be a great help to others, but it is enough to help us remember that we co-exist with others in smaller and larger communities.
And maybe that is a way to successfully approach poverty. Back in agrarian times, people were inter-dependent. Now, we are fiercely independent--and, in some ways, fiercely dependent. Independence is not necessarily a bad thing--as long as it is tempered so we reach out to others AND accept reaching in from others. Dependence, on the other end of the spectrum, is not a good thing. I'm not very comfortable with the trend toward dependence we see in our current political situation. It reeks of thinklessness, laziness, and unequally forced equality.
So perhaps inter-dependence is something that should be looked at more carefully as a viable way to dealing with inequality in terms of poverty.
posted by Tricia at 10:27 AM
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