Safety Nets

In the 60s my husband was the director of an urban ministry in Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding county (Broward.) During that time we had a dozen or so VISTA Volunteers working with us. They were bright, hard working, brave and optimistic. Most of them went on to do magnificent things with their lives.

But one thing about them bugged me. Every one of them thought it was so cool that they were choosing to be poor. They liked to brag about it. They thought they could identify with the people they were helping.

But they weren't really poor. In the privacy of our bedroom I referred to them as the "poor wannabees." They could go home, back to their rich, cushy lives, whenever they wanted.

Every one of them had a huge safety net.

Early in my marriage I'm sure that we could have threatened each other with leaving from time to time but we didn't because neither of us had anyplace else to go.

We had no safety net.

I have friends who have kept their (now middle aged) kids rooms exactly as they left them so that they would always have a place to come home to.

We didn't do that with our kids. Once they got married they were on their on. My son accused me of changing his room into a home office about a half hour after he left for college.

But my kids know that I am a certain kind of safety net for them - just as they are for me. Just not the ultimate one.

We're now seeing people who are not only suffering financially in the present, their safety net has vanished.

Very frightening indeed.

It's in these times that we have to determine where our ultimate safety really lies.


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