Make it Better

Sorry about my cooking photography, but it was good.

It’s late in the afternoon and the sun’s trying to go down. I made a jury-rigged dinner out of a box meal and some real vegetables. It turned out pretty good. During these times when no one can afford groceries anymore, you have to get creative. If you’re still working you always have the option to pick up extra work. But when your retired or disabled you’re stuck with the same monthly stipend no matter how much groceries, gas, or rent go up.

So you make compromises, like buying a little less meat or stop going out for a quick meal. You raise the thermostat on the AC, even in 100° weather and make fewer trips to your out-of-town doctors. (Sadly, if you live in a rural area, every doctors out-of-town). Still you do the best you can, while the world seems to be crashing all around you. But instead of wallowing in my misery, I think back to something my Grandma once said on a hot summer afternoon. It was during a low point in my life when I was going through a divorce, having to move back in with my grandmother, while all my “worldly goods” were being divided up.
 
She said, “During World War 2 we thought we were seeing the end, and we thought it couldn’t get any worse. But guess what? It got better, and then it got worse, and it got better again.” What she was trying to tell me was something I didn’t want to hear. That things are going to get better, and then at some point, they are going to get worse again. But that doesn’t mean that you stop trying. Because every day on this sad pile of shit we call a world. Someone’s trying to do better despite what they see around them. So fight for what you believe in and make it better.