Subject: Re: Faith, Family, Schools, Jobs, Success! (Chatlist 6818)
Hi Jimmy,
In your speech, you mentioned that “if money is your issue, adopt the attitude that, ‘being broke is temporary, being “poor” is a state of mind.'” I would like to know what you will do if elected to support affordable housing, food access, and other essential services in our community. Often, being broke is not temporary and it’s hard to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” if the straps are broken.
Rachel Horowitz (Chatlist 6819)
Rachel, I am very sorry for this late reply to you.
I also posted my essay (speech) on various social media. The surprising mass outpouring of appreciation, agreement and encouragement by many, to me, but also their own encouragement, was unexpected. I heard from students I had not had in years, and many friends going back from my childhood and teenage years.
Frankly the only negative reply I got was from you. Using your own God created Free Will, you seemed to choose to ignore everything I wrote, which is your privilege. So I chose not to reply but my wife and a couple others told me I should.
The picture you painted was of people’s despair and hopelessness.
Broke vs Poor: In Ida and my 43 years together, we were “broke” way more than we were not. My mama would always say, “if money is your only problem, you are rich in many other ways. If you have your health, people who you love and who love you; you are blessed.”
I wouldn’t trade my years with Ida with anyone. Although penniless many times, through times of lost loved ones, initial heartbreak of two special needs children, rebuilding our lives through “the rug being severely pulled out” a couple of times, we experienced unhappiness quite often, but our “JOY” never left. (In all my teaching, I emphasize “Joy vs Happiness”.)
Often help, loans and huge credit card debt were necessary but I also felt I was just a job or a better job, away. When Ida was forced into an early birth of our son due to life threatening issues (and the cause of his CP), with no insurance, the resulting medical bills were so staggering I saw no possible end to it at all. Even a better job would not pay that off.. I DID feel hopeless. I once attended a money seminar during another time of no money. I met a guy there and after I told him of my financial woes, he simply said, “well, they can’t eat you”. I laughed, then asked what he meant, he said, “we don’t have debtors prisons here and as long as you are alive, there is still hope”.
The optimism of a better tomorrow overcame the immediate times of current uncertainty.
As to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps”, I never used that phrase at all, and don’t even like that philosophy. My son’s overcoming of adversity rather than just existing in it, included, parents, family, surgeons, various types of therapists, teachers, and church support. My students rebuilding their lives also included many of these, plus financial aid, counseling services, mentors, role models, etc.
The only thing I mentioned that one does themselves is a certain attitude and choosing appropriate role models. Faith stresses getting OUT of the driver’s seat, into the passenger seat, and putting God behind the wheel.
And as to “the straps are broken”; Many broken things in life can be fixed, including broken people. In my essay, I spoke to the importance and necessity of “safety nets”. That includes “broken people”, housing, food, other services. And, as one seminary trained for ministry; its root is “to minister to”. Christian and other Faiths, minister to all, including the broken, those in despair, the hopeless. The message (goal) is a better way by satisfying spiritual AND physical needs.
An atheist once ridiculed me by saying Christianity is just a crutch.. I replied, no it’s a new pair of legs!
Rachel, not replying to you was wrong and I also apologize for the length. My prayer is; as the Animals sang in 1965, “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good; oh Lord, please don’t let me be mis-understood”.
Respectfully, Jimmy
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 12:29:44 +0000 (UTC)
From: Jimmy & Ida Pharr
Subject: Re: Faith, Family, Schools, Jobs, Success! (Chatlist 6818)