Thursday, September 08, 2005

On the subject of being poor

I read these blogs yesterday:One definition of poor and another definition of being poor. I definitely thought one blogger was trying to outdo the other... and I started to laugh when I remembered.... "and now for something completely different" another description of being poor with an interesting add on.Monty Python's Flying Circus - "Four Yorkshiremen" One extra comment worth noting...

"FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof." There will be many who are new to being poor, having moved from the "have" category to the "have not" as distinct to the characters in the skit.

This is very interesting subject. Thinking you are poor is very subjective. Being poor is relative and how a person defines being poor depends on what they aspire to. And then there is poverty. My thirty years of experience in the Pawnbroking business taught me that what defines being poor has changed beyond recognition over the decades. Pawning Sunday Church clothes on a Monday, including shoes, helped raise funds with dignity for food in the sixties and seventies. In the eighties there were no sheets or bedding on the shelves in the warehouse. Luxury electrical items began to fill the space. The safes filled with jewellery items. The pledge money was used for gambling and drink among other things, including food probably.

And then there is spiritual poverty. Did I miss that aspect of being poor in the other posts?