The Word Press Daily Prompt word of the day—MEAGER

Lord,

It’s been a long year, and things haven’t been easy. I won’t tell you about everything and everybody, I’ll just settle on those who have been blindsided. They’ve found themselves forced out of jobs due to downsizing, automation, and elimination. Some have seen their  jobs shipped overseas.

They heard the experts say they needed six months of living expenses saved up for emergencies. They laughed at this absurdity and wondered who in the world could do that. They never had enough in their meager wages to save. Still, they’d been doing okay, making it from week to week.

When the pink slips were passed out and the paychecks stopped coming, these workers realized that they had nothing of value—just a lot of stuff and nowhere to put it. They sought out friends and family who could keep their possessions until they got back on their feet. They moved their wives and children in with family or friends.

It was fine for a while, but soon, these able-bodied men and women knew it was time for them to go. So, they moved out—grateful that, for a time, their kids would be protected from the system.

The hopes and dreams of their youth had never prepared them for being homeless.

And so, it is for the hopeless inhabitants of this big, beautiful, magnificent world that I ask your blessings this Holiday Season. As successful Capital Gamers scurry past, carrying ten dollar cappuccinos, shouting orders into their iPhone X’s, and barely even glancing at the shopping carts full of meager belongings, give the homeless strength to make it through another day.

The Prayer of Serenity asks that we be granted serenity to accept the things we can’t change. Yet, I’m so afraid that the dual societies, I and others describe in our dystopian novels, will be the final result of the way we’re living today.

So Lord, my prayer is not to change things. Change might take an inordinate amount of time. Capitalism is the way of the land and it is firmly entrenched. My prayer is that, while they can still make choices, you will wake up those who are busily indulging every whim and warn them they are just a paycheck away from homelessness.

While they are still employed, let him or her realize that everybody doesn’t live paycheck-to-paycheck. Floor-workers don’t drive foreign cars or wear thousand dollar watches unless they’ve plugged away enough money to live through hard times. They don’t buy iPhones for their children, or put cruises and fancy restaurant dinners on their credit cards.

My prayer is that the working poor discover a life lived meagerly can be an exciting adventure, at least for a while. Children can be taught to look inside and not to things for fulfillment. Later, when a few months worth of wages is saved and workers can breathe, let them find they don’t crave material things nearly as much as they used to.

Amen

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