As I was walking yesterday to attend my AA meeting, I have many routes to take to get there. The one in the most direct line takes me through a very run down part of town. This path is filled with abandoned and rundown homes. Many are dilapidated, abandoned old homes with “no trespassing” signs on the front doors and with their roofs caving in. The few nice looking homes have high fences and gates with heavy padlocks on them. Their fronts are adorned with signs proclaiming things such as neighborhood watch and crime stoppers. The side walks and abandoned yards are filled with broken and discarded beer and liquor bottles.
I have rarely been through this part of town in my life. It was always the colored part of the small southern town I live in. I could see poverty everywhere I looked. Apathetic people who where sitting on their porches with 40 once beers in their hands. All these people were looking forlorn and sad. They looked bored and without direction.
It hit me really hard how very much the plight of black people in the south is still very apparent. They are still trying so hard to pull themselves up from poverty yet many still remain. These unfortunate many that have fallen through the cracks of society and have been forgotten.
I was feeling sad and lonely and sorry for myself yesterday. Seeing this made me feel lucky. I have fallen through the cracks of society once but had the good fortune to be pulled back to the other side. I have hope; something most of those people couldn’t afford. I am very rich indeed.
I will try today to be thankful for what I have. Good food, sobriety, the ability to walk free in clean and tidy neighborhoods. I have a wonderful, warm, soft bed that I can sleep in and enjoy at night. I have a roof over my head that doesn’t leak or fall down upon me bit by bit. These things make me rich beyond compare to the vast majority of downtrodden people who have walked a similar path before me. I am a lucky man. Lucky indeed.
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