Adventures in Tikkun Olam

[mallorys_camera]

The Food Bank’s client roster grows ever longer. We must have given food away to 100 people yesterday.

My job is doling out the produce—lettuce, arugula, garlic, and chives from the community garden; bananas, blueberries, and clementines from the local supermarket (paid for with a United Way grant.)

I shouldn’t resent the Clients With Attitude who are rude to me and picky about what they’ll take—Tikkun Olam, after all, carries no requirement for gratitude—but I do.

I particularly resented these clients, who were likely only temporary residents of the bucolic village of Hyde Park, housed for the time being in one of the dilapidated motel complexes that once provided lodging to history buffs visiting the FDR Presidential Library but have now been commandeered by Dutchess County Social Services for the housing of the indigent or (as seems very likely in this case) the battered:



They couldn’t have been older than 20, and two of them were pregnant, so I found myself channeling Malthus even though I don’t approve of Malthus.

Also, the green-haired girl got into a fight with somebody over the phone.

“Fuck you!” she screamed. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck you!”

Repetition is one way to make up for a limited vocabulary, I guess.

The tiny senior citizen directly in line in back of them got very scared and wanted to spend a long time telling me how things weren’t like this when she was a girl. Which slowed down the line even more.

There were still people waiting for food when we ran out of food.

###

Also yesterday, the stock market rose by 700 points, so happy times on Wall Street and in D.C.

Recession? trumpeted the headlines. What recession?

But I can tell you for a fact there’s a whole lot of poverty and misery and suffering just beneath the surface, and that poverty and misery and suffering seems to be getting worse, not better.

Comments

[gale_storm]

‘There were still people waiting for food when we ran out of food.’

Hopeful that you could find some or maybe magic some up!!

[mallorys_camera]

We didn't. 😥

[gale_storm]

…and, sadly, couldn’t, I know.

[smokingboot]

Here too.

And I know exactly what you mean by the occasional channeling of Malthus :-(

[mallorys_camera]

Yeah, I know, right? I felt so sorry for those girls' kids! How are they going to break the cycle?

[smokingboot]

I just don't know. School, one hopes. Something somewhere that teaches them different. I've known a couple of people who broke out from this kind of background, but they were ferociously intelligent. Even now, their families are at once proud of what they've achieved, and resentful of them growing beyond their roots.