Tales From A Family Reunion
My oldest brother loves to share this punch and counterpunch from one of his marital disputes after 30 years together:
“If I had the money, I’d leave you!”
“If I had the money, I’d give it to you!”
That was several years ago and they are still together. Being poor can have unintended benefits at times but being poor by American standards has been a predictable blessing, affording me unknown things in an environment of creativity, ingenuity, imaginative play and problem-solving. I call this “poor creativity.”
For the couple above, being poor was manifested in their creative arguing. They completely spun and turned around the phrase, “It’s cheaper to keep her.” This would not have been possible if they had expendable financial resources. For me, being poor fostered an eventual recognition for the value, importance and appreciation of things, especially once I began to work every day for money. This was reinforced when I had to pay for everything I needed and wanted.
The notion that poor means having nothing is exposed for its foolishness when I consider my upbringing where making the most of what you have and making it despite what you didn’t have served as incubators for creativity and material sensibility, by American standards. We had the essentials and had more than others in this and other countries back then and today. Clearly, we were never poor; yet we were afforded the invaluable benefits of poor creativity. I wonder if that couple feels the same.
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American standards, creativity, family reunion, poor
