Earlier in hte week, I was planning to be on the road already, hauling a friend's items to an art show. I would have to arrive during set up to get her things where they belonged on time.
But she got better and is going herself.
So I have an extra leisurely hour to spend before leaving (I'm already packed, showered, dressed).
I decided I had time to eat breakfast and write a diary.
Except I have no prepared words or thoughts.
Maybe I'll address Romney's "47%" misperception.
I don't consider myself poor. After all, I have a house, a car, a dog (well, 2 dogs, actually), a refrigerator, a TV, a stove with a working oven, and a microwave older than my oldest child (he's 51, by the way). I have a job that provides a few "benefits" that they automatically withdraw from my paycheck before I ever see the money.
I never did understand why they're called "benefits" when I pay for them but can't afford to use them. Like health insurance. Almost 1/4 of my paycheck goes away to pay for health insurance "provided" by my employer, but I can't afford the co-pays and deductibles to ever use that insurance. If I wasn't paying for the insurance, I could afford to pay full price for a doctor's visit and afford the prescriptions because I know where and how to get them for less. But I have insurance so I can't use those places. Good thing I'm healthy. Disabled, maybe, but healthy.
I don't have to spend more than $70,000.00 a year on my service animal. He costs me maybe $200 a year because he's healthy (except his knee surgery last yar - and all y'all helped him through that - and we are ever so thankful!)
My hobbies and interests are cheap ones. I make things from scraps and found materials, and I embroider, and I paint, and I sew.
OK, not all my hobbies are cheap. I'm working on one right now that costs $60,000.00 to put on - less than one year of Mrs. Romney's horse's care - and my hobby will make hundreds of people happy and help tens of people furhter their own employment, and will support tens of other people in their jobs fulfilling the hobby - yes, I'm talking abot OctopodiCon. It will have a small impact on the city's tourism, and it will boost spending for a few days, keeping restaurants, hoteliers, and local shops in business another day. So while my hobby is kind of expensive (when you're poor), it's going to benefit a lot of people, much more than what I'm spending for it.
My hobbies aren't selfih ones. They are all ones that involve other peope, that benefit other people. I make things for them, do things for them. It makes me happy.
And yet, I have a space heater to heat just one room of my house in winter, and one window unit to cool one room of my house in the brutal heat of summer because I can't afford to have whole house heating/cooling installed. I shop the discount grocery stores and grow much of my own food because I can't afford to buy it. I make many of my own clothes out of scrap fabrics and things I find at flea markets and garage sales. My home is furnished with roadside rejects, furniture left by the side of hte road for the trash man to pick up. My books come from the Friends of the Library Book Sale (where hardbacks are $1 and paperbacks are 50 cents). I do my own hair and nails, and groom my dogs myself. I do my own house repairs and have lived nearly a year with a clogged kitchen sink because I lack the tools to unclog it - the clog is too far back for me and stubborn. I've been washing hte dishes outside in plastic bins with water heated on the stove. New shoes in my size cost nearly a month's wages, so I buy shoes too big for me and stuff them with cork and foam.
Despite all the shifts I do to be comfortable and make it through the year, I don't consider myself poor.
I have friends. I have the basics, even if it's second/third/tenth hand and worn and in need of repairs. I have them.
So, maybe I am in Romney's "47%", but I'll tell you where else I am. I'm wealthier than Romney in all the things that truly matter. He's in the 1% of the barren, selfish wealthy, and I'm reveling in the 99% of real, loving, richly welcoming, supportive, and creative humanity.
I like my life better than Romney will ever like his, and my friends and home are so much cooler than his.
I bet his bedroom isn;t painted in stripes of nearly a dozen colors!