I make my rounds every day.But at the beginning of every month, I'm particularly busy.
While I don't collect rent from many of my tenants, I still drive them around to take care of their errands or settle their disputes or just to visit.
This month kind of threw me off because of the digital switchover, and then it's postponement.
After connecting a lot of those little black boxes, scanning the channels and showing my tenants how they're used - Congress announced that the switch to digital won't take place until June.
What, wasn't four years enough notice to give people?
I know, an estimated six million people didn't have their boxes, but four years should be enough time to prepare.
My tenants aren't just ghetto, but "Country Ghetto" (their words).
If these people had enough sense and time to get a box, everyone should have.
The most interesting daily visit is to an old blind lady.
Every night, I make sure she has her dinner, has taken her bath, I sit and visit and then put her eye drops in.
Tonight we watched (listened to) the Temptations movie on ION.
She asked me if it was Black History Month. "yes Ma'am", I replied.
She then spoke about the times in which she grew up.
Her great-grandson asked about Segregation.
I asked if she remembers having to sit in the back of the bus or outside of a restaurant or on the Black side of a movie theater.
"Nope", she says, "We were too poor to do any of that".
I thought she was joking, but she was dead serious.
Too poor for Segregation?
But the rounds have gotten old.
Every month I think things will be better the next.
Every month, things are still the same.
Everyone I know needs something from me every time they see me.
I thought that I could quit after a decade - but no one seems to have changed.
In fact, I think they may be even more dependent on me.
I think I may have added another level of dependency to their lives.
Maybe the Bible was right when it said that we would always have the poor with us.
But I can't seem to communicate that it doesn't have to be them.
"Too poor for segregation." I think that must be poorer than piss poor which I've been a couple of times. But to be so poor that people wont even discriminate against you, that's one for the books.
ReplyDeleteyour way of dealing with things.. the light in which you see them,,, is oft times unprecedented.. i am enjoying sharing that view with you more and more over the course of time...
ReplyDeleteToo poor to even take the bus?
ReplyDeleteMaybe she just didn't want to talk about it? I've known older people who just don't want to revisit an ugly past.
The poor will always be with us well... I find it hard to motivate or persuade people one on one but if there is a group I usually am more successful. I know I say it a million times but positive circumstances produce positive results and even if the person is still lazy they are a lazy bus driver not lazy on welfare.
ReplyDeleteYou do a lot for people and although they aren't changing I really think the change will be noticed in their kids. You will be the one person who they can say their children should be like. You are the one person that brings good times to maybe a overall horrible life. Maybe those are the only things you can hold onto from your efforts.
@ Curious - Yeah, I've been that poor too. Twice when a child and once (by choice) as an adult.
ReplyDeleteBut every time, I worked my way out of it.
I thought I could teach the lessons learned to others, but maybe it's one of those things one has to learn for their self.
@ paisley - Well.. I've been given a second chance for the hundreth time.
I just wanted to make the most of this one.
This cat has used up the tenth of his nine lives.
@ Macon D - Nah... she's told me about her mother dying giving birth to her, her son being killed, her daughter's cancer, her grandchild's premature birth. She tells me everything.
Her first car was bought with the insurance money from her son's death (she was 45).
I just asked her daughter if it was true (about five minutes ago).
She says that they didn't even have a bike to ride. Ten mile walks to work were common.
They were hella' poor.
They'd heard of Segregation, but since their world was mostly where they could walk, it didn't effect them.
@ FreeMan - Yep. This is a family I council. The daughter makes 120+k a year, but they had nothing to show for it. They kept buying thing that they thought would make them look rich instead of doing what is needed to actually become rich.
Now, they have a really nice brick home in a nice area with less income. I had to teach them that how the money was spent was just as important as how much was made.
Now if I could just teach them that grown children are supposed to be an asset not a financial liability.