Last night I had a rage face and posted somewhat of a rant on facebook…
“I’m super glad my state taxes went to paying for your food stamps so you could buy your obese four year old a case of Mtn Dew. Don’t forget to cash in those cans so you can get yourself a shiny case of beer. // I can not begin to formulate the words to express the anger I feel when I see people with free food money buying expensive junk food. I give up almost every personal comfort so my children can eat well. Yes. My house is giant, but it’s 100 years old, just like my cars, broken and old…I’m very happy I work hard and have the life I have, but seriously, what the fuck Iowa, if I quit working you will pay all my bills and buy me food? I’m $200/month away from our state poverty level and can recieve no help, even though I pay out the ass in taxes, because I CHOOSE to work? Iowa, you give me rage face… And you are a bastard.”
And a bazillion of my friends began commenting on how, essentially, they feel the same way. A general condense version is that “the system” is crap. I began to think less of how horrible it is and remembered I am still in complete control…
Squeezes are always free.
“I will say this though…Even though the system is complete shit, it HAS formed the way I parent. We have no TV, so we read A LOT. I have had to learn how to change a water pump at the drop of a hat, and my kids repair their own bikes. We are doing the work to our home ourselves….blah blah blah…My point is, from poverty we have enriched ourselves with self education and it is AMAZING. We have to do everything ourselves, so we do, and it empowers us.
I shit you not…my kids came home yesterday thrilled it was windy so they could tie yarn to plastic bags and fly them like kites…and then played with giant cardboard tubes for THREE hours in the front yard, not giving a cuss who looked them…
So yeah, we ALL feel the pain of the economy and unfair bullshit, but at the end of the day, ultimately, we are in control of how we live.”
We have to do everything ourselves, so we do, and it empowers us.
We eat a lot of bread because it is cheap. If my toaster broke tomorrow I would google how to fix it. I would fix it and give the middle finger to mass production and shitty plastic devices. If I could not fix it, I would hunt one down at a goodwill or find someone online who needed something else and trade them. I sure as hell would not be buying a new toaster.
But, come on, it is only $10…
Right and that $10 will buy a new pair of shoes for my kid/toilet paper for 2-3 weeks/candy for my mouth. It is the point that I didn’t have to buy one, so I didn’t. I taught myself how to fix it and I made that toaster my bitch.
“Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.” -Tyler Durden
How much of ourselves have we given up because we could afford something easier? Is being broke really that bad? As Americans, we have a track record of not doing something unless we are forced into it. Is it so bad we are forced to talk about these things? To self educate? To struggle? At the end of the day, are you happy, simply for the wind in the sky?
I sit here displeased because I can’t have free money for food and my kids are going to be eating spaghetti again for dinner…but we are all going to sit together and talk about our day, laugh with each other and smile. NONE of that costs a dime. Interestingly enough, it’s also the most important part of being human. Our connections, how we love and care for each other. Which brings me full circle, we are in control of how we live.
<mini rant>If you have a problem with how the economy is run, vote. Get off your ass and go vote. I am not talking on a national level (which is also important) but at your state level. Educate yourself on what is happening in your community, or shut up. Plus, if you can afford internet, you aren’t that broke… #guilty</mini rant>
Today I am sending you my love, in a for real kind of way, because that is the kind of person I want to be.
