Reactions: MLK Day essay

Responses continue to the Martin Luther King Day essay that I posted on the 19th.

Sue writes:

I wanted to thank you for the essay. Very well done! My husband and I had been discussing this very thing Tuesday and Wednesday. He has been looking for a job for almost 3 months and we are trying to scrape by on what I make. We do not have cell phones or many of those trappings out of it not being a necessity. Anyway he was talking about on Tuesday contacting his church (which he has already done) about their homeless ministry. I had mentioned that for the past couple years I wanted to volunteer at the local literacy council to help folks learn to read. I had to wait until our daughter was no longer an infant. She is 3 now and reading is very important to me. Now that she is older I have no excuse not to find out more of how I can help.

We often talk about when we first moved to the place we are renting and how we were terribly excited to buy a chair from Goodwill that costs a whopping $5. Money was so tight then that we had to discuss whether we could afford a single piece of furniture that cost $5. We were happy and always appreciated what we had. With money tight again we have truly enjoyed being forced to do more at home. We like our cooking and have become rather creative with what we have around the house. Amazing what you can create. Admittedly we often ordered out or bought simple things to heat and eat out of laziness/convenience convinced we were too tired/busy. We can not afford to do that now and we are much happier for it. In a strange way even this stuff gives one more of a sense of purpose/self reliance. Shortly before he lost his job we had started baking all our own bread. It is so much part of our week that we look forward to it (most of the time) and prefer our own bread. One day we had to buy a loaf and our daughter refused to eat it. That made me feel really good.

On a side note, this Saturday I am registered to attend a volunteer information session for the Columbus Literacy Council to see if it is as good fit for them and myself. I am looking forward to this opportunity. If my spouse is having a difficult time finding employment then I can not imagine how difficult it is for someone else that can not read at all or very well. Plus I can relate. I had to have tutors when in elementary school and my most difficult task in college was reading. I am very slow and generally have to reread items before I can fully retain/grasp the material. I have worked past this so hopefully my experience may help someone else understand it is okay and that we all have our difficulties. It is merely a matter of how we choose to face them.

Image: "Martin Luther King Jr." by Dave McKeague