I wrote the story below nearly 10 years ago, and somebody
someplace in the world read it yesterday. Although most of us would admit that
our lives are pretty good right now, the truth is that there really is not much
difference between our lives and the lives of the homeless people begging for
money on street corners.
We’ve all had bad days. In fact, most of us have had bad
YEARS. Sharon developed stage 4 cancer in the early 1990’s, but managed to
survive. However, a co-worker of mine named Pete lost his wife about the same
time due to virtually the same disease.
My bad year was 2003.
At the time, I was a commissioned life insurance salesman. Although
I had done modestly well my first three years in the business, things were not
going as well in 2003. On top of that, I managed to pick up two speeding tickets,
Sharon got called into court over some credit disputes, and our Chrysler PT Cruiser
was rear-ended on the way to court.
Since my income had decreased, it became more difficult to pay
our bills. I was able to postpone our mortgage payments for a while, we now
qualified for food stamps, the local St. Vincent de Paul Society was able to
give u a modest cash grant to help with our expenses – but they couldn’t help us
with the electric bill. For that, we had to go to the Salvation Army.
Let me tell you about Jim.
Before I met Jim, he was the pastor of a large Lutheran
congregation in Naperville. He and his wife lived in a nice house in town, he drove
a fairly new Cadillac, and he was able to take a couple of nice vacations every
year.
Unexpectedly, he suffered a brain aneurysm, which prevented
him from working. Eventually, he permanently lost his job, his home was
foreclosed, his car was repossessed, and his wife left him for a boyfriend in St.
Louis. When I met him, he described what he had gone through as like having the
World Trade Center fall on his head, and he actually contemplated suicide for a
while.
Over time, his health improved, and he was finally physically
able to apply for work again. He answered a blind ad in the Chicago Tribune,
and he was hired by the company that placed the ad.
That company was The Salvation Army. As he described it, if
you are in the social service business, the Salvation Army is the Cadillac of
employers. After a few months of working, he was able to save up enough money
to buy a used Chevrolet, he was renting a modest house in Aurora, and he met a wonderful
local school teacher, who he immediately fell in love with. They were planning
on getting married later on that year.
Even before the pandemic, a lot of people in this country were
struggling financially. In December of last year, a survey by a financial
company discovered that 69% of the respondents to their survey had less than
$1000 in savings. Although the unemployment rate has now dropped slightly from
its peak, there are literally MILLIONS of people who are behind on their rent
or mortgage payments. Although there currently is a moratorium on evictions and
foreclosures, eventually the piper has to be paid,
https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/savings-advice/americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings/
Currently, there are an estimated 1,750,000 people who are
homeless in this country, and 31 million people (nearly 10% of the population)
suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger. In 2011, there were more than
44 million people who were living on food stamps, an increase of more than 50%
since 2007.
https://www.tennhelp.com/public-resources/homeless-statistics-in-the-usa.html
I managed to survive 2003 – but I had to move to China before
things started to improve. At this point, I can’t predict what’s going to
happen when those rent/mortgage moratoriums expire, but it’s not going to be
pretty. However, as Jim’s story points out, help can sometimes come from
unexpected sources. Even if the World Trade Center falls on your head, it’s not
the end of the world, and there IS something you can do to improve your
situation.
Be sure to vote in November (or earlier).
No comments:
Post a Comment