in hopes to destroy the wall created by those who help.

There is a blatant difference between the people of the social classes; A very distinct constant that separates the pinstriped plush from the pauper. The difference is something far more obvious than money... it's one of those deals where everyone knows it, but no one talks about it.

all sorts of people hurt, all kinds of people are addicted, and all types of people partake in domestic violence. These aren't characteristics of class. these are characteristics of people. Money has absolutely nothing to do with it. There are people who have been well informed about investing, banking, mortgages, budgeting and government aid for schooling. There are others who don't really have the money to be advised. But money is the difference in class, not the difference in people.

Money doesn't create separation. money doesn't force individuals apart. money doesn't make the majority of your friends within the same monetary standing as you. Money doesn't make you the more significant and hold more worth.



This narcissistic perception of ourselves does.


I stood at the top of a hill that plateaued under a bridge downtown today. There were hundreds of liquor bottles, fast food bags, used condoms, containers from donated food people picked up from Daily Bread. The place was dirty, graffitied, and isolated from the rest of downtown. I passed a guy on the way there who I'm sure had been there a few times before, and I gave him a friendly hello. He responded seconds after we had passed each other with an inaudible grunt; this was after he stared at me as if i was crazy. I didn't belong there, and he knew it.

The class itself is divided by money, yes. but the dividing wall that ultimately divides God's children rests on the soul fact that we want to view ourselves as better off, as more in tune than those around us. We crave this need to hear from those in close proximity in our lives that we're doing something right, that we're successful, that we're loved, that we're witty, that we're beautiful, that we're wanted.

People see the poor as just that.

Poor.

Therefore, we, the UNpoor, see ourselves as their source of hope. We as the unpoor see ourselves as what these people should be more like. because we have our lives together, because we have a car. because we have nice clothes. because we sit behind a desk all day so that we can by the new shoes and plasma screen and vacation want. The poor are the sick, and it's up to the rich to heal them from there terrible fate.

Our relationships with the poor revolve around donating, around helping. we are the supplier, we are the doctor. We hand out food and donate clothes because "they need it". Sitting and smoking a pipe with a less fortunate friend for the sake of friendship has never been considered an attractive act of kindness. There is no organization involved. nothing to promise you safety. It's nothing you can take your Christian friends to and help the hungry and feel good about yourself.
So this healthy, loving exchange between people never occurs. Because it doesn't fit the comfortable mold of the contemporary idea of "loving the poor."

And our excuses? We can't instigate friendships? we don't live in the same areas? we have nothing in common?

we have the same hurts, the same questions, the same kinds of relationships... we'd just never know because clothing and houses and distanced neighborhoods get in the way.

Those with less see that, i've been told.

Being on the "more fortunate" end of the spectrum may be nice for the reputation and ego. But it leaves very little room for love. It seems to me that those who don't have a lot seem to understand the idea of love and God.

Jesus Christ seemed to think so
.

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."