Category Archives: Get on your feet

o Grow the pie, or re-slice it?

Clippings, Get on your feet, National politics, Poverty, , , , , , , ,

(Originally posted 09/30/13.)

Here comes the spoils society

Don’t let that odd title put you off. I think this op-ed by Robert J. Samuelson is pretty important.

The question is whether we direct the economy so as to increase wealth for everyone, or instead merely give poorer or richer people larger pieces of the “pie.”

In my conversations with other homeless folk and poor people generally, I hope to emphasize the desirability of creating wealth as opposed to merely taking it away from others.

On that point, I’m certainly prone to agree with Andy Kessler, though I have uneasiness as to whether or not he would support corresponding policies.

Other recent articles on similar questions:

An Obituary for the American Middle Class
Race, income, education increasingly polarize U.S. families since recession
Higher education’s biggest challenge is income inequality

As to Catharine Hill’s piece, I really have to question what “special services” rich families are “demanding” that are bidding up tuition costs.

* Light Inside: A Hallowe’en Message

Bible, Get on your feet, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace, , , , , , , , , ,

(Below appears a tract I passed out with the Hallowe’en candy in 2007. “Chaos overwhelms the poor” describes that neighborhood.  Originally posted here 10/26/13. Reblogged 10/31/24.)

Light Inside

Hallowe’en is the night before a Christian holiday. The name of the holiday is “All Saints’ Day.” Years ago, they called it “All Hallows’ Day,” and the night before, “All Hallows’ Evening.”

Continue reading * Light Inside: A Hallowe’en Message →

* Risk and faith

Get on your feet, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace, , , , , ,

12:30 Wednesday 2016-10-05

A learning opportunity that may seem trivial.

I’ve been pondering a lot lately why people, myself included, balk at owning their personal power.  It has seemed to me that a major factor is fear of disappointment:  owning personal power means a duty to take initiatives, to act on arbitrary decisions, and face the risk that what one hoped for may not obtain.

Yesterday morning when I turned my phone on, there were three voice mails, one from my invalid oldest brother and two from prospective employers wanting to set interviews.  Given the way things are for me on Tuesdays, I was unable to return any of the calls.  I wanted to do so today.

Continue reading * Risk and faith →

* A MUST-READ CONCERNING JUSTICE AND POVERTY

Clippings, Dependency, Get on your feet, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Squalor, ,

(Originally posted 10/05/13. Reblogged 07/25/24.)

The Marshmallow Study Revisited

For the past four decades, the “marshmallow test” has served as a classic experimental measure of children’s self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two later?

Now a new study demonstrates that being able to delay gratification is influenced as much by the environment as by innate ability. Children who experienced reliable interactions immediately before the marshmallow task waited on average four times longer—12 versus three minutes—than youngsters in similar but unreliable situations.

The article explores the issues in some depth.

* Courage to walk unarmed

Get on your feet, National politics, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Squalor, Yahoo! Voices, , , , , , , ,

A Nation of Cowards

Jeffrey Snyder suggests that carrying a handgun is both a right and a duty of every law-abiding citizen.

This is hard for me to relate to; as, for all practical purposes, no such people exist in my world.

Gun lovers’ slogans include, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” Forget laws; in my world, only outlaws have guns now.

I have no impulse to join them.
Continue reading * Courage to walk unarmed →

* Take things in stride

Get on your feet, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, The Way of Peace, , , , , , , ,

16:03 Thursday 2016-09-08

A case on point.

Today as I walked toward the shelter, I contemplated that I am likely to have no smokes during the day tomorrow. How will I handle this; how will I feel about it? Factors:

• How important is it, compared to other things I may attend to?
• Can I take things in stride?
• (There was a third one, that escapes me just now.)

Then I arrived at the shelter. It was 15:25, and the gate was locked. In the end, I got turned away.

For the second time in two days.

Continue reading * Take things in stride →

* Paying my dues, singing the blues?

Career goals, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Motivations, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Yahoo! Voices, ,

Courage and despair hang in the balance for a homeless radio talk jock wannabe.

“You’ve got to pay your dues
If you want to sing the blues,
And you know, it don’t come easy.”
— Ringo Starr, “It Don’t Come Easy”

Many years ago, when I first conceived the ambition to become a radio talk show host, I quickly selected that song as virtually a theme for my show. Life is difficult. My heart’s desire was to equip people to face life’s difficulties head-on.

My life circumstances were far more comfortable at that time than they have become since. Now I’m asking myself if I’m paying my dues; if I can sing the blues; and whether I myself will face life’s difficulties head-on.
Continue reading * Paying my dues, singing the blues? →

* Attributes of the mainstream

Get on your feet, Homelessness, Motivations, OUR BEST POSTS, Squalor,

Do I want to become a mainstream person?

My visions for myself have been (1) becoming self-supporting while still staying at the shelter; (2) obtaining a small, studio apartment with a laptop, radio and cat.  The second one really represents all I aspire to, in terms of material comforts, in life.  But it has occurred to me that maybe I need to envision more than that for myself, if I am to find motivation to really work for these things.

Circa 2008, while I was living in Barclay and working at a dollar store that served a very Barclay-like population, a brother pulled a stunt to bring about an ad hoc family reunion, of my immediate family, at his house.  It lasted two or three days.  It was as if I’d been transported to heaven.

Continue reading * Attributes of the mainstream →

* Job search strategies – The very beginning

Get on your feet, Job search/Job prospects

I have been asked to help a couple young men in the congregation find work.

For me to write this at this juncture, when I myself don’t have work, may seem silly.  However, the strategies don’t change.  They may find work before I do.

Below appears information about some temp agencies I’m aware of.  Their mention here does not imply any endorsement.  I will update this post from time to time as I obtain more information.

I will discuss searching for “permanent” jobs in a later post.

Continue reading * Job search strategies – The very beginning →

* “Every thought is a prayer.”

Get on your feet, Job search/Job prospects, Media, Motivations, National news, National politics, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace, , , , , ,

The seductiveness of turmoil.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

My foremost task for today is to keep myself focused on the practical things I need to do to improve my lot in life.

They can be seen as boring, mundane, dreary, tedious, and so on — if I fail to love myself enough to actually want to do them.

Accordingly, this morning I was reading through various news articles, and on one page, at the end, the links to “related” articles included this:

I didn’t read the article, but boy, just that headline really got my engines going.  I can’t remember the last time I was in a setting where someone might have been told, “Check your privilege.”  Normally this is addressed to a white person, and, as I’ve noted before, in my world there aren’t enough white people to matter.

Continue reading * “Every thought is a prayer.” →