Several times a week I am blessed to spend time with nonagenarians. I find myself wanting to ask their thoughts about what our current administration is doing to eviscerate the economy. They are themselves dependent on social security, and although their wants are few, they do have needs. 

 

It occurs to me that these people were alive in the Great Depression. While they were not the bread winners when there was almost no bread to be found, poverty was the backdrop of their childhoods. 

 

"Did you feel poor?" I asked one of them. 

 

"Not really. My mother never made cookies, and we had no phone, so when my father had a heart attack I ran next door to call the doctor." 

 

She became the wage earner at fifteen, and before that worked at a drug store serving ice cream. Yet there was no whiff of self importance embedded in these memories. She did what needed to be done. 

 

Another woman remembered when her brother brought a friend home for lunch, because today was his day not to eat at his house. 

 

It seems likely that the financial hits buffeting us will result in a recession. Sometimes I envy the elderly, who will soon wake up in a place where generosity and altruism render everyone blessed. But for reasons that elude me, I am still here in this precarious world. 

 

Although I may yet face a time when it is my turn not to eat, maybe I can find ways to nourish those around me.