thesoulpurposedotorg

About six months ago, my husband was out of work. We decided to make a game out of living on the edge of poverty. We collected cans and bottles from the side of roads, recycle bins and garbage containers. Our goal was to collect enough in deposit returns to pay for groceries. We did this for three months and were able to collect about $60 a month and buy enough groceries for the month at Aldi’s. It was fun for about three weeks.

After that, our relative wealth became a little clearer to us. Gas prices went sky high about the time my spouse got a new job. I kept collecting cans out of curiosity and habit. I discovered as the gas prices rose, the availability of discarded cans and bottles disappeared. There were letters to the editor in our local paper about others collecting these discards to afford gas to get to work. I decided they needed it more than us.

I have continued to shop at Aldi’s and to try to live more moderately in other ways. Here’s some of my observations:

. There are hardly any can.s and bottles in discarded places anymore.
. Aldi.s has become crowded every day, not just on the first of the month when the poor get their welfare checks.
. The store is often filled with the mentally, physically and socially disabled people who work very hard just to do their grocery shopping.
. I find more elderly men looking quite desperate slowly moving through the aisles of the store, trying to make sense of it all.
. I see more able bodied men, appearing to shop for the first time with their female partner, trying to appear competent and strong but their eyes betray their fear. I assume they, too, are out of work.

We are in strained times. It seems to me that we are more afraid and less trusting than any time in my memory. My brother-in-law from Canada asked me yesterday, .What has happened to your country? And why doesn.t somebody do something about it?. He also mentioned that the disaster response to Hurricane Katrina was certainly embarrassing. I had a quick answer which means my answer wasn.t very well thought out, .The people who run our country right now are all from the same party . we can.t hold them accountable in any real way until the next election..

In the meantime, I make sure I look people in the eye as I walk with them through the aisles at Aldi.s. I treat each with respect even when they appear to have no such respect for themselves. And I remember that we are all made of the same stuff.