Summer time and Livings not Easy

June 20 2011
Summer time and the living is easy….
Fish are jumping and the cotton is high….
While out in this oppressive heat this week, the words to that song from the opera Porgy and Bess kept running through my mind and all I could think about is there is nothing easy about Summer time in Mississippi. It’s hot and humid and mosquitoes are lurking to suck my blood. I did see fish jumping out the water while I was at a workshop at Lake Tiak O’Khata but I suspect it was because the water was a bit hot and the fish was feeling like it might be in a frying pan! As for cotton, perhaps that should be rewritten as “and ‘tater’ slips are in the ground”

Porgy and Bess was not exactly a ‘feel good’ opera and did not end well, it still had many messages. Are rich people happier with all their possessions and money or are poor people happier since they don’t have all that extra stuff around that they have to worry about?

I have to look around and wonder about such things myself. Can people really overcome their past and lead a good life, or will other people refuse to accept them. The Lord forgives us when we do stupid things and ask for forgiveness yet “we” tend to be skeptical and don’t give people the benefit of the doubt or even give them a chance.

Working with the local food pantry for over 11 years has opened my eyes to a lot of things. First, there are hungry people living around me. Second, there are people that really don’t give a damn that their neighbor is hungry. Third, no one believes that it could happen to them and fourth, there is always going to be some busybody that will break their neck to call me and tell me I should not be giving a box of food to ‘someone’ because that ‘someone’ doesn’t deserve it and is just lazy and good for nothing.

This coming Saturday I will standing out in that brutal heat with a ice pack under my wide brim hat as I mark off names on my list of the people in the county that will be coming for the small box of groceries that we have gathered. Your local food pantries depend and exist solely on donations of food from individuals. The pantries are all volunteer based. No one gets paid to do it. The volunteer’s work relentlessly looking and begging for canned food drives, and for people to drive to pick up locations to haul back any donations that can be obtained from the Mississippi Food Network. There aren’t any government funds for food pantries. Its all about people taking care of people. If your brother or sister stumbles and falls, you reach out and help them up; Just like they would help you in your time of need.

Times are hard now with high gas prices and food prices going out of control and the cost of living is in a constant state of rising and the job market is not promising at all for the many that are looking.

It may be summertime around here but the living ain’t easy for some.