It's All about the Vantage Point (or Why I saw Four Christmases without Prescription Medication)

So one of the many exciting things I do each week is work at the customer service desk at the Y. I love it. The pleaser in me gets some excercise and I hear the daily goings on around town. Right now, most talk is about the economy.

I hear about lay-offs, whose house isn't selling, and who's giving up pilates. In the winter, people call in all day long looking for shelter. (The Charlotte Ys haven't provided overnight accommodations in years.) A sampling of the past few weeks:

• A member of one of Charlotte's exclusive golf clubs tells me over 70 long time members have dropped out this November due to financial concerns. Most are bank employees.
• A stay at home mom, wife of a surgeon with a couple of offices in town, explains she’s going back to work in January to assist in household expenses.
  
• When I ask a a regular why she's moving so slowly, she tells me the medicine for her rheumatoid arthritis is so expensive that she only takes it every other week now.
  
• The Y itself has to let several longtime employees go--not enough resources to cover expenses. (No cutbacks in its community service though.)
  
• A 90 year old man comes into the Y to discuss his membership as he has annually for decades. Only today, his brain is overwhelmed with the paperworkness of it all. This year, with the economy and his health, it's finally just too much for him. To his embarrassment, tears well up. He sits down, puts his head in his hands. We call his daughter, sit with him until she comes to pick him up.
  

With the stock market dangling, belts tightening, and the hungry getting hungrier, it is dreary out there. I, for one, am doing my part by hiding in the movie theaters and libraries. (I enjoyed Australia --great for forgetting about dreary stuff--but wouldn't mind cutting it down to 12 hours from 18. I recommend that you wait for the Four Christmases DVD, then invite your enemies over and lock them in a room with it while you check out a real movie. )

I told you all of this, so I could tell you about my friend Margit, a midwife, who recently wrote from Abeche, Chad. That’s the African Chad near Darfur, the one we most often associate with war, rebels, and famine. Margit is learning Arabic to better understand the women she's helping deliver babies. Her compatriot Karen Kimmon’s story about cooking Thanksgiving dinner is fascinating. Rae Lynn tells about the civil rights she misses (such as the right not to get ripped off.) And Steve has some amazing pictures, including shots of their home-to-be made out of dirt.

So Margit helped me find some perspective. Maybe I'll leave the library after all.