Tag: poverty

An unrealistic wish

What’s one thing you wish you had started doing earlier in life?

Being honest with myself, I wish I had taken horseback riding lessons when I was younger and more able to learn. It would have been so much fun to work with horses and learn to ride well. Also I would just like to have had the opportunity to take care of horses and learn how to keep them healthy from a young age. It was my dream.

My sweet Apache, who really isn’t fond of being ridden.

Hey. I lived in working-class towns and was part of a one-income family with large medical bills. There was no money for extras, nor was there any way to get to a horse other than rare visits. So I set other, more manageable goals and was very appreciative of the help I got to do other things I loved, like singing and writing. (I also wish I could have had voice lessons.) I’m absolutely fine with my life. No complaints.

My favorite singing photo. Early 1990s.

I did get to spend over a decade learning about horses and I still get to care for my beautiful equine friends. Having space at the ranch and funds to care for horses has been a dream come true.

Now Apache gets to hang out with Spice and walk around with me.

An aside: I never thought I’d have any income that covers more than food and housing. I know I’m privileged. Knowing there are people who don’t even have that is sobering. Basic life expenses should be within everyone’s reach.

Having dogs is another privilege.

This was a nice diversion from thinking about having to go for more dental work tomorrow. I know it won’t be as bad as last time, but it’s on my mind. Other diversions have been watching football (Cowboys won) and jumping in the car to locate a grass fire and make sure firefighters were on the way. They were!

Seen from our road
Closer—it was right across from Benny’s old family.
See the dust? Fire truck.
It zipped past us.

Now I’m at an inexpensive hotel luxuriating and feeling grateful I don’t have to drive in from the ranch for the 8 am appointment.

I have football, Ritz crackers, and guacamole. Ahh.

Many of you dear readers are in my thoughts. So much pain in the world, physical and mental! Your empath friend feels it.

Book Review: Dignity

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, by Chris Arnade, may not be the most well-crafted book I ever read, but it made a huge impact on me, and I am very grateful to have had the chance to read it. It helped me understand some of the issues in Cameron as well as why some of the things the movers and shakers are trying don’t really work.

I have a suspicion that my friends, family, and coworkers will be very glad when I write up this review, so I’ll stop summarizing the book and explaining what it says. I’m just so glad that I had some of my prejudices and misconceptions ripped away and have at least a bit more understanding of a subset of American society that I once had some strong biases against: the people in small towns or impoverished neighborhoods.

So, all about Dignity

The photographs in the book are very moving. They are of real people in their real surroundings.

Arnade calls people like me “front row people,” which are people who by luck of their birth have had all the opportunities available to be able to do what counts as “success” in the US: advanced degrees, home ownership, a job that uses the brain, not the body to earn a living. They have a front row seat at all the possible things the society values. He calls people who live in towns where all the employers are gone, where many people use drugs or alcohol to get through the day, and who use their bodies to work, when there is work, back row people. Always having trouble getting ahead, behind on opportunities, etc. *

It impressed me that Arnade, who was a Wall Street stockbroker, and therefore way in the front row, got curious about the lives of people near him who didn’t have the same opportunities he did. He spent three years getting to know a community in Brooklyn, then visited places across the US to learn how they get where they are and why they stay.

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