Playing Poor

Today I feel poor. I am anything but poor, however, as I live in the United States of America and own my own car. This puts me in the top 5% of the world's wealthy, so I am not going to stop helping the truly poor. So many people are far worse off than I am. Nor am I going to give in to fear about money, because that is corrosive to faith.

Still it makes sense to economize in these times and I am doing that. I am thankful that I have the best bedsheets that Dollar Tree offers, and the most luxurious clothes from the clearance rack at Beall's. I am joyous beyond measure for my spicy chicken sandwich from the Superduper Dollar Value Menu at the fast food joint down the street. That may seem facetious. Actually it isn't. It's unbelievable to have the cash on hand to just walk up and buy a ready-made sandwich from someone. Most people in Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Niger can't do that.

There are patterns to financial prosperity or the lack thereof. A friend of mine, Bryan, once noted that the north side of a city often seems more prosperous than the south side. This is true in Central City and Spanish City anyway. It is also true of the American continent. North America and Canada are more prosperous than South and Central America and Mexico. Bryan said this principle even applied to the small hamlet in which he was born, called Flanco, population about 300. Flanco lies a few hundred miles from here. Bryan noted of tiny Flanco that "all the double-wide mobile homes are on the north side of Flanco."