In the Eyes of Poverty ...

24 hours with Rakesh (Work in progress) **6:39 am.**
Originally uploaded by --Liza--
In my social work class this evening, we studied the impact of poverty on people who make up the "lower 1/5th" of the population in terms of income. The current poverty line is: $22,000 for a family of four.

I posed a question to my students tonight which rattled their sheltered, for the most part, worlds. "What changes would you have to make in your life in order to live on $2 a day?" The gasps and bulging eyes spread like wildfire around the room. Some began to protest: "Are you kidding? That's impossible!" I shared with them that folks living below the poverty line survive on $2 a day, sometimes less. And then I told them to get creative and resourceful and see what they came up with.

Some students thought about how they would have to ride a bike to work or school if they had to, while others were aware of some "free" perks offered to students who fell below a certain income.  Some spoke about the "treats" they'd give up,  the ways in which they would have to be frugal.   Some students flat out said "There's no way I can do this." To which I responded: "What if you had no choice?"

Dead Silence.

For the duration of the class, however, I noticed a shift in the attitudes of the students. They had softened, they offered more thoughtful responses to other questions about poverty. They grew more enthusiastic about wanting to develop strategies to educate and support people who are homeless or malnourished or just plain poor.

None of us in that room really "get" , fortunately, what it would be like to experience life on $2 a day. The closest I came was a time period during my alcoholism when I perhaps had, after rent and a few select bills, approximately $30-40 extra each pay period. Much of this went to booze. A minimal amount of this went to food which consisted of : rice cakes, tuna, peanut butter. An occasional package of Ho-Ho's. I had no furnishings outside of a borrowed futon and milkcrates and a boom box. I had a few forks and knives and spoons which were all mismatched and likely stolen from restaurants. This is where addiction took me. I was lucky to have been able to keep a job and to have a roof over my head and to not have landed in a shelter or on the streets. One drink away perhaps ...

What would life look like for me on $2 a day ? I shudder to think about this in any serious way. No car. No cell phone. No internet. No health insurance. I couldn't afford to live where I do. I would have to get a room in a house close to where I teach. I do have a bike, so I could ride as long as the weather cooperated. My grocery items would be sparse -- I would likely become a really resourceful "dumpster diver" -- especially outside of good restaurants. No luxuries of any kind, including a cup of coffee at a cafe. No classes at the non dual heaing school I attend, unless I'd get a scholarship. No favorite meals out with friends, unless they were treating out of pity. Second-hand clothes. Washing things by hand because of laundromat costs. Could I even afford my dog ?

1/3 of the entire world's population is starving. Another 1/3 is underfed. Makes me much more mindful about waste and how I consider my food and the deep gratitude for the opportunity to have a meal.

I showed a youtube video tonight to highlight the "faces of poverty", which included people in both urban and rural settings, of all ages and ethnicities and family compositions. I saw the tears streaming down some of the faces of my students. I told them that the reason I chose such a video (and will likely do more in the future) was because it was important for them, as future social workers, to see reality for what it is. To know if they can bear to take in the suffering of the world in which social workers interface with others' hardships.
I did not show this for some dramatic effect; I showed this because it's real.

Part of my nondual practice is about seeing the suffering of the world from our heart. I just shared with my healer in a session today about how I had been avoiding this because sometimes it was too intimate, too painful, too difficult. After tonight's class, I want my eyes open to the struggle of being human in the physical world. To have a large enough container to take it in, to find compassion, to soften toward the cruelty of it. To look lovingly in the eyes of poverty and find the life that is there too.