Creeds for a Crumbling World | Living Softly with Integrity
Creeds for a Crumbling World
Integrity, Poverty, and the Choice to Live Softly in a Hard Age.
The Fracture
Some days, I wake up and find myself hyper-aware of the distance between who I am, where I am, what I am, and the person I dream about becoming. For a moment, the progress and the growth of the past slips past my mind's eye, and all that I am aware of is the enormous space between reality and my hope for the future.
Existing in the current environment, bred by the prevailing political climate, feels like living with an infected rip right down the middle of society. On one side, some people appear gleeful about the American families who just lost SNAP benefits. How does that happen? How do we, as a society, get to a place where we celebrate others' struggles and hardships?
I had a conversation about a year ago with the CEO of a well-known nonprofit organization. We were discussing the strain of childcare costs on middle-class Americans. We had just completed a market survey on childcare expenses in their county. The median household income in that county is $62,500. Childcare costs approximately $5 per hour and is only available to select first-shift workers. When discussing these findings, his response was, "I don't see a big deal. You and I made it work. Why can't they figure it out?"
How could someone responsible for managing social programs be so out of touch with reality? I remember being too stunned to even respond.
Let's do some math together, shall we?
The median household income in that county is $62,500 a year. Deduct taxes, that's about $4,166 a month in take-home pay.
Rent or house payment alone costs $1,000; if you can find something this cost-effective. Add $300 for water, sewer, electric, and gas, $100 for a cell phone, and another $80 for internet, again very conservative numbers. Before they've even driven to work, you're already at $1,480.
By the time you factor in car payments, insurance, groceries, childcare, and healthcare, that paycheck is gone, and they've had to decide who to pay and who to short. That's not irresponsibility. That's basic addition and subtraction. The average family in this county isn't thriving. They are barely surviving.
It's time for the powers that be to serve their constituents.
I oversaw a large rental property portfolio for almost nine years. During that time, I reviewed the personal financials of thousands of households. I watched the toll of simply having a roof over your children's heads and paying monthly obligations tear families to shreds. I witnessed generational damage coursing through families where we housed three and four generations, all in horrific poverty. People abandoning their children, their elderly, and their mentally ill.
One of these properties I managed sat directly behind a Walmart. Many of the tenants worked for this superstore, valued at $806 billion. Every month, I signed their staff's SNAP benefits form. Even with two adults in the households working full-time, they still could not afford to feed and clothe their babies. Walmart then accepts nearly 25% of SNAP benefits nationwide.
So I ask you, who is getting our tax dollars? Poor people or the Walton family?
Folks, this is not a Republican versus Democrat problem. This is a top-versus-bottom problem.
Fifty percent of our fellow Americans own just 2.5% of the wealth in the United States of America. We should tax the businesses that create workforces in need of social services, not shame people for needing help. It's not about policing who receives free food to feed kids; it should be about cutting off the real parasites to our nation's well-being.
It's time to quit shaming people experiencing poverty and cut off the financial giants capitalizing on the poor.
While I may not have the power to rewrite tax laws and social policy, I can choose how I live and what is taught in my home.
Building a Code of Integrity
Several years back, I made a resolution to develop a set of creeds that captured how I wanted to live in this world and could be taught to my young son without unduly influencing his personal development. I was on a mission to create a way of living that eased the harshness of this world and raised a young man who walked through this world confident in himself, yet empathetic to the situations he would undoubtedly encounter in life.
No matter the injustice or wrongs we witness, we can continue with integrity and lead ourselves with confidence. When we are unsure of how to proceed in a situation, we make a trip to the side of our refrigerator and visit with our handwritten creeds.
The Seven Creeds
1. Intentionality
In our home, we are intentional. We choose our actions and our words; therefore, we choose our outcomes. We are grown and maintained by our self-discipline.
2. Integrity
We walk on a path of glowing integrity; our character illuminates our environment and announces our trustworthiness when we arrive.
3. Fairness and Emotional Regulation
We are fair by stepping back from our emotions and observing our feelings before responding. We resist reacting.
4. Respect for Differences
We love and respect the differences between our path and another's journey.
5. Kindness as Overflow
We are kind. We pour out kindness as if it returns threefold.
6. Stewardship and Generosity
We take care of and protect our people, creatures, and things. We are generous, fair, and kind to ourselves so that we may overflow into our environment.
7. Mindful Humility
We are mindfully humble so as not to drown in our accomplishments.
Integrity as Rebellion
While the world may not always appreciate the actions these creeds inspire, I regret none of the actions I've taken in attempting to live by this standard. If nothing else, I will die knowing my son had a role model for living softly.
In a world driven by consumerism and temporary ease, we rebel by living in a space built on humility, stewardship, generosity, kindness, respect, intentionality, fairness, regulation, and integrity.
Every rebellious action I model is a seed planted in another's soul—an opportunity for another to decide enough is enough and move forward with their own path.
On the days it feels like the roof could come down on top of us, I go home and sit, quietly reminding myself why all of this matters.