1000 Fields of Roses

… is not necessarily what you get..

I don’t mean to be cryptic, and I’ll explain that remark a bit later..

Firstly, I went to Streetlinks this week with hubby and another friend of ours, where we provided music for some of the day. Streetlinks is an annual event for the homeless and disadvantaged, where various providers set up tables, and people can access, for free, the help they need. There’s free food (and free lattes – a rare luxury for me! 😀 ) and blankets/woollies, necessary for this time of year. We had a great day, and were able to contribute our music.

Just after our first set, we decided to go and check out the various tables, to see if we could access some help for our particular situation… we were asked by someone else why that would be necessary (we were helpers .. how could we be helpees ? ) We explained that we were, technically, homeless.

Did that  conjure up an image of us shivering  in blankets on a street corner, clutching an empty bottle of whisky?

If so, you would have a lot of company.. that’s the stereotype often served up on TV shows and movies (and of course, does exist out there) There are a lot more types of homelessness. Here’s a definition –

“An individual who lacks housing, including one whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations; an individual who is a resident in transitional housing; or an individual who has as a primary residence a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.”

We fall into that definition… and so could the person next to you at the Woolworths checkout…. or the well dressed person at the library.. or the nice lady at church. We’re all just people, the same as any other, just in different circumstances… a point put across very well in this blog post. God does not have favourites… nor should we. God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance… so should we. That also harks back to my initial comment… what we see is not what is necessarily the whole truth. We turned up at our house (the one the bank has repossessed and is auctioning off) just in time to talk to the real estate agent who is auctioning it – he was just putting up boards. He is also handling twenty-two other mortgage repossession auctions at the moment… just one agent in one  small part of this country. How many more people out there are there who are just about to lose everything? Some of those may end up on the streets, some may couch surf for a while…. some may give up altogether. Not all of them are there because of stupid financial decisions – all it takes is the loss of a job, or an unexpected illness, or any number of reasons. Next week/next month/ next year it may be you, or someone you love. We’re all equal, in the end.

Ok, that ended up longer than I’d planned… I initially wanted to muse about two thoughts..
One is the whole “barrier between helper and those being helped” thing… it’s human nature to create groups and cliques, I think – we want to stick with what we know, and shun or disparage what we don’t. That makes it easy to see those who are disadvantaged in some way, and to start ascribing character traits to them (to be in that situation they must be lazy/stupid/greedy etc) It’s like a charm we can use to keep said misfortune from happening to us. We fool ourselves that we’re somehow “better” because we have jobs/homes/money in the bank… the truth is, often, we’re just more fortunate. Please don’t start shouting – I know you probably work hard and live frugally, and that’s great – you’re doing a good job, and I commend you… I suppose I’m just trying to say that your human worth is no more nor less than anyone else’s…
Here’s an interesting perspective (Warning – there’s profanity in this article, and the next… be aware, if that bothers you.. I think the points are still valid) This is specifically talking about the rich, but haven’t we all said or thought some of these things at some time or other? Simply put, none of us “make it” without help from others… and none of us “lose it” alone, either..

The second thought came out of a conversation this morning – that those in financial difficulties just need financial counselling to correct their poor habits…
This does make sense – learning ways to manage money is a good thing, and I’m glad that’s available… but not using money wisely encompasses a whole raft of other issues, some outlined in this article. We’ve all heard about the lottery winners who rip through the money in seconds, and we’ve all wished we could have that opportunity to show off our financial prowess 😀 Would we fare better? It’s a thought… We (hubby and I) are pretty good at living frugally… we’ve always done what we could to pay bills on time, put food on the table… all the essentials. For probably the last few years, it’s been tight… and the last couple of months it’s been a celebration if we could afford milk for tea in the morning, and some fresh fruit and veg (except the last couple of weeks – it’s like God’s emptied an orchard into our fridge, and stuck a couple of chooks in the freezer while He was at it. 😀 We have great friends and family) I’ve felt the whole “money-in-hand-gotta-spend-it-before-it-disappears” thing, and we’ve certainly seen both boys pretend they don’t want something because they know they can’t get it… that’s hard. We are greatly blessed, though – we have a hope and a future, and all of us know that. I don’t know how I’d cope without that.

I’ve ranted on a bit… congratulations if you’re still reading 😀 I’m not sure what great thought to finish up on… maybe think twice, look beyond appearance, walk in someone else’s shoes, we’re all the same under the skin – all the cliches.

That doesn’t make them less true.