Wealth and Poverty. I have often observed that the same momentum that eases one into a comfortable amount of wealth can easily work in the opposite direction. Many who are wealthy, no matter how one defines wealth in a material comfort way, may believe that they achieved it through strictly independent effort and proper decision making. This framework likely may cause one to think that another person's poverty is caused by their strictly independent lack of effort and improper decision making. However, having lived in very meager circumstances and alternatively in what I consider wealthy circumstances, I believe, and have experienced, that external factors can cascade rapidly from misfortune to stasis where reversing the momentum seems almost impossible. Not one of us landed where we are without the gracious and generous gifts or assistance of others, or alternatively, absent a gracious and generous amount of assistance from others. If we look at what we have received with gratitude and grasp that we really need others, it becomes much easier to reach out to reverse another person's momentum. So, contemplating the current circumstances of our world, maybe we can focus on what we can do for others on an individual basis - reach out and actually touch someone, help them to change the momentum, or as a friend of mine often declares, "Prop someone up today!"
AMDG