I say fruitless in the American sense of the thought, not in the God sense. The American system is all about accomplishment, achievement, productivity, upward mobility. God's way is all about relationship, love, giving, humility, self-sacrifice, compassion, purity of heart...
Meshell called because she needed a ride to pawn her DVD player so that she could get some cash to buy some batteries for her hearing aid, so that she could hear during her food stamp phone interview the next day. While we were headed to the pawn shop, she told me she's putting her son Ricky in marial arts.
I don't think she's too good at math, or at planning, or at keeping her son from disappointment. Ricky is totally pumped about the class, but I can see that it won't last, although it would probably be really cool and socially beneficial for him. Meshell told me it costs $60/week, but you can pay something like $239 per month. I asked her how they were going to come up with some $230/month. She explained that they have a free tryout session the next night (if they can find a ride) and that they'll give him a free outfit and that you can make payments. I can tell that the mention of freebies, including free transportation from school and back home has totally blinded her from the fact that this venture will cost a veritable fortune for them. If Ricky even makes it to the next nights' meeting, they won't last past the first couple of payments and then they'll be in debt.
Then we get to the pharmacy for the batteries for her hearing aid and she comes back out empty handed. She explained that they don't have cheap batteries there, that she'd found some for $8.99, but that when she got to the cash register, they changed the price to $16. I'm thinking that if they'd thrown in some freebies, she'd have thought it was a steal and why $16 for the gift of hearing seems like a lot, but $230/month to teach her kid to kick is doable.
This is just another tactic of our capitalist economy- give them small free things, provide debt and drain them for every drop they have. They'll enter in gleefully and pay for the rest of their lives.
I don't like to make trips and not get what I went for. But I'm not sure that is what all of this was about. I don't think this is all about her spending or the ruses of our crocked capitalism (although that is just plain evil). The Lover said if they ask give and don't just go one mile, go two. If you serve the least of these, you've served Me. It doesn't all have to make sense, no matter that I would like it to. My place is just to be there and to love and be a friend (even when it makes no sense to me and drives me batty).
1 comment:
It would drive me batty, too, especially because I would want to default to scarcity thinking and how better used my gas and time could have been spent.
That's why you're in Meshelle's life instead of me, A.
I so get her mentality of wanting to give her boy what other kids have or what she thinks he needs and what will make all the lack okay.
It took a long time for me to realize that it was better to have very little on a steady basis than to have wild fluctuations that left my boy never knowing what he could count on.
Granted, sometimes I still forget and want to shoot for the moon or make promises I'm not sure I can keep, but, yeah, I understand Meshelle all too well.
Hearing aids? Not as big a priority as the dream of your kid fitting in-even if only for a short time.
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