Giving
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” An admirable sentiment and true in many situations. At Hope House we see people who are in need for many reasons and not being able to fish is usually not one of them. I am often asked by people who don’t work at Hope House what we are doing to “teach our clients to fish”. I think this bothers me for several reasons:
• It infers our clients are too lazy and/or not trying to “fish”.
• It assumes everyone can “fish”.
• It also assumes there is a level playing field out there.
Teaching
The truth is that we don’t attempt to “teach” our clients anything. That would indicate that they have something to learn. Since when is being broke/poor/young/mentally ill/physically challenged/elderly/alone or down on your luck a consequence of ignorance of how to “fish”? What we DO at Hope House is attempt to make life a little easier for those who are struggling, no matter what the cause of their distress. What we offer is compassion, respect and love.
We do not presume that we have anything to teach them, nor that their lives are somehow “less-than” because they need help. We have had former social workers, college professors, insurance agents, contractors and truck drivers come through our door in need. They know what a “normal” life looks like–they have lived it, but are having a rough time. I bet you would find many of our clients feel their lives are perfectly normal and acceptable. How demeaning and arrogant to assume we or anyone else knows better than they do how to live!
Need support
As for that playing field, we don’t all start at the same place in life, with the support systems many of us take for granted.
- Many of our clients are undereducated because of less than stellar parenting and support, and a lack of resources to excel.
- Those who suffer from mental or physical disorders often find themselves out of luck in the job market.
- Many who are battling addiction find the road to sobriety to be long and twisting.
- Language can be a barrier for those who are recently immigrated to our country.
- Many seniors find that their meager social security checks don’t cover all their expenses.
- Youth alone can be a devastating strike against those young mothers trying to do the right thing by their children.
- The simple truth is we have clients who work hard at 2-3 jobs and still need some assistance to make it through the month.
Many, if not most, of our clients know how to “fish”.
They just can’t get to the pond.
That’s the rant from my amazing grace filled life today.