One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, ‘How was the trip?’
It was great, Dad.’
Did you see how poor people live?’ the father asked.
Oh yeah,’ said the son.
So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?’ asked the father.
The son answered: ‘I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.’
The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, ‘Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.’
Isn’t perspective an interesting thing?
Thanks Mickie
Yeeeeeeeeeeah, how about taking sonny boy to 69th and Cottage Grove, in Chicago and see what the kid thinks then.
I don’t think anyone who owns a place in the country, with “fields as far as the eye can see”, is considered poor anymore.
Ahhh, I like this. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. Beautiful.
I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, and I’ve seen life from both sides. I’ve lived in the country in a house trailer, and I’ve lived ‘in town’ in a house surrounded by walls and iron gates. This, while heartwarming and beautiful and all that, is simply sentimental bull crap.
I disagree crispy, but that doesn’t mean that I’m right.
My last post was harsh. I’m sorry, Bella. I’m in a hard depression this week, and I’m just feeling a little mean and vicious.
By this standard I am still middle class! I guess there is no escaping some labels!
Crispy – I have typed and retyped a message to you and none of it is coming out right. Just hugs to you. xo
Thanks, Bitscared. I’ve had those days too.
He shoulda took the kid to a housing project, or better yet, a shelter. Anyone who has that much land is not poor.
Miss Cellania – By other countries standards, a housing project is still much more than they have. He shoulda took him to Iraq or Somalia.
No kidding, Lol. When I was kid, we had these ‘projects’ that didn’t have electricity, plumbing or running water. Unscrupulous developers would buy some land, throw up these ‘houses’ that often lacked proper foundations even, and that typically fell apart in a few years, and then they’d sell them to people too poor to buy anything else (often immigrants who were coming from worse places). When I was a kid, we lived in a house trailer way out in the country. Early one morning, I woke before everybody else, and when I looked out the window I saw the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a very foggy morning, couldn’t see more than 25 feet maybe, and there was a bright orange fox, the only color I could see in all that grayness, tiptoeing between the barbed wire and across the yard. Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe that animal. It was magical.
Group hug for Crispy and here’s hoping that today is a better day!!