$100 and No Possessions

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake

back

What would you do if you only had $100 and no possessions?

This question makes me think about several really big things. I would prefer to think about how would I spend lottery winnings. What philanthropies and causes would I support? How would I care for my family? Where would I travel? What job would I do if I did not have to work? But, I will persist with different, and perhaps more fundamental, questions.

How do people live on $100 and No Possessions?

Think about having only $100 and no possessions. Think about the economic reality faced by many people. The official United States poverty rate is 12.7% (US Census Bureau, 2016). In 2016, 18.5 million people lived in deep poverty. For a single individual under 65 years old, an annual income below $6,243 is considered deep poverty, and 18.5 million people lived in deep poverty in 2016. Life is economically fragile for too many people. Life with $100 and no possessions is life on an edge.

What would I do if I had a health crisis?

As a person living with a genetic condition, I live in fear of health crises. I have a pre-existing condition. The probability that issues will occur in my heart and kidneys is high. The steps I take to maintain my health are both preventative and critical. According to a Harvard study, 60% of bankruptcies in 2007 were the result of medical expenses. Health crises can have enormous implications for people with and without money.

What about times in my life when I have had to turn to others and ask for help?

What would I have done if I had no one to ask for help? You have to have boots to have bootstraps. None of us do any of this alone without standing on the shoulders of those that have gone before. My family has been there for me when I have needed support. Families are a part of it. Communities are a part of it. What happens when families and communities can not support us during inevitable trails? Be mindful that we are all a job loss, a health crisis, a divorce, a hurricane, a fire, a flood, or … from needing help.

What are my priorities?

Relationships and connections are the most important things to me. Experiences, like travel and good food, are important too. But, when I think about what I value most, even if I only had $100 and no possessions, it would be relationships. That has been my truth regardless of how much I have or don’t have.