I agree, Kesia. We romanticize struggling when really it is just…struggling. And rich people let us because, hey, whatever get our poor bodies through the day!

I’m glad that we’re starting to wrestle with why some people don’t deal with scarcity and some people do. And I think it starts with rejecting the lie that “hard work” is all that is needed to succeed. There is no amount of hard work that can take place in an office that outstrips working in a coal mine or a sugar cane field or digging a ditch.

As for our feeling that we are depriving our comfortable children of something important, I try to remember the what we have not deprived them of — a safe place to learn and grow.

I remember distinctly not trying things and not doing things because I lacked the confidence and/or stability to do them. I was accepted into a top-rated grammar school, but never went because it was on the other side of town and my mother couldn’t figure out how to make that work as a single mother with several children. Later, I was accepted at a top-rated high school and never went because I couldn’t figure out how to safely cross the gang territories between it and my home every day.

My son now attends a top-rated school across town and his mother and I have a schedule for picking him up and dropping him off each day.

To hell with character-building exercises, I like his way a LOT better.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Chris