Beginning of The Dignity

To be poor in America is to be invisible. To be find oneself poor in America is a shock-- no one expects it. I've hit a place where poor no longer even has meaning; where I'm not even sure what to wish or hope for the future. Getting here was a concatenation of events that I couldn't have foreseen or predicted. Like victims of natural disasters, I have been wandering long in a devastated landscape, dazed and confused, wondering what went wrong? How could this all have turned out a different way?

But there is no visually effective television spot or fundraiser for victims of crappy lives. And no matter what you might hear, the services intended to help the "needy" aren't much.

While I still have a very very part-time job that pays for an internet connection, I intend to put out there this dizzying, bewildering thing that has occurred-- this horrible dismaying confusing life-place where I am.

Let me introduce myself. I am your neighbor, who has a Master's degree and a very fine brain, who had great potential and a fine future. And I am:
poor
powerless
invisible
the single parent of a special needs child
with cancer
and only a few true friends.

Thank God for them.