Happy, But Realistic

At the moment, life is good. I am optimistic that it will be good tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Why so? After two months, I finally got got a haircut. He Who Must Be Obeyed and I have followed our hair stylist all over Omaha these last six years. She has moved from one shop to another and we have gotten to know her quite well; well enough to know that Friday she will be 40 and is apprehensive over it; we know her well enough to have been invited to her Italian wedding reception for a marriage that unraveled a year later. When my roommate of over 50 years broke his heel coming off a ladder the wrong way and was in a wheel chair for four months, she came to the house and cut both of our hairs. That sounds like each of us had one hair and it isn't terribly far from the truth. We do know her better than usual.

The reality of many Americans is, that even at 40, working steadily, and trying and striving and working, some people are staring middle age in the face and are making $6.70 an hour for six months while establishing themselves in a new place. No, not a new skill, nor a new profession, just a new place, a new chair, in America.

Our dear, dear Kelly has a son who is a junior in highschool and yes, summers he works with her dad in a lawn service. He is a retired Omaha policeman with a work ethic that survives his 70 something age. I can't imagine anything nicer than a grandson working with a grandfather out of doors. In spite of a lot of noise from the mowers they use, I can happily imagine that there are hours of conversation in the truck between jobs. His beat was North Omaha which was a tough assignment then and is more so today. Mowing lawns is probably a piece of cake in comparison.

Omaha is an early day Itialian immigrant town. For this Finn, I could easily get into romanticizing the ethnicity as quickly as I want to with the Sioux Indian. Forget the mafia, forget the pasta, just think of a hardworking handsome group that have tight family connections and a work ethic that could shame some German Americans I know.

In six weeks Kelly will get her hourly wage and then split her earnings with the house. He Who Must Be Obeyed suggested we have her come to our house to cut our hair, so she can keep everything she makes. Is there a law against that? It kills me to think she only will gets half! People cannot live on less than $7 an hour but for six weeks that is life for her.

Last Saturday we studied the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It make me feel like I am going right to Hades because we are comfortable. The 'camel and the needle's eye' stuff needles my conscience. My heart goes out to workers who work and still can't make a living. It simply is not right. Minimum wage needs to be reworked; tough luck McDonald's, it has to happen for the benefit of people trying to put kids through school, to start retirement funds at 40, to simply live a small bit of the American Dream.

Maybe I shouldn't be so happy. I am, however, and thankful for my own comfy little life. I wish I could make it better for others.