True Life Stories of a Child in Crisis
Children in poverty are emotionally fragile; their feelings are easily hurt by the most ordinary things. The real life stories of children living in dysfunctional homes where there is a constant crisis: utilities suddenly cut-off for nonpayment, evictions, addictions, and in your face violence are more prevalent today than at any time in my memory.
There are times when everyone will experience hurt because things didn’t go their way, causing emotional pain. But, envision a lifestyle in which things rarely go your way as a result of the limitations imposed by poverty.
The worst thing you can do is blame yourself or someone else, but that’s almost impossible not to do if you are a member of the poverty class. For example, at the age of seventeen I was stabbed in the chest in our neighborhood, just because I said hello to a passing stranger while walking on the sidewalk.
When hurt, our first reaction is the tendency to listen to others who will reinforce our opinions or confirm our blame, and though that may temporarily make a person feel better, it cannot fix the problem that created the pain in the first place.
The beauty of humans is our ability to use our imagination to learn how to overcome adversity, to plan our functions, even achieve growth because of it. In my case, I imagined myself being a successful attorney, wearing the finest suits, driving a fancy car, and living in a beautiful home. I avoided the negative influences at home, such as my father’s drunken rages.
The video below is an taped interview in which I discuss a particluar incident involvng my father that happened during the Christmas holidays when I was just six years old.
If we have patience, time will heal all wounds and we will long less for things that are really not inportant to us. We will appreciate the simple beauty of Mother Nature, and we will admire the complex beauty of love itself. If we live our lives the way we want others to treat us, then we always make things right whenever we do something wrong. Our character will be conscience.
Today I am at peace with myself, with my God, and the beauty and wildness of Mother Nature. Looking back on it now, I can see so clearly that my success can be attributed, in part, to growth through beauty, imagination and function. I am grateful for it all, both good and bad, because it is part of who I am, and helped shape me into the man I am today.
