I Need to Talk

I Need to Talk  (ASR) An awakening #1621321 by jwolfe

I'm so glad you're home! I need to talk - I just feel awful. I had an experience at work today and I feel awful. I was talking to my co-worker Toni - you know, the usual chit chat about our weekends. So I was telling her about mine.My son's school - you know, Trinity? - sent out a note this year with the kids that said because of the economy they wouldn't be doing a gift exchange - they were asking people to donate canned goods to be donated.

And I said it was nice to see they recognize that everyone is having trouble, not just people who live paycheck to paycheck or have lost their house or anything. So I'm going on and on about how much stuff they wanted! I'm complaining about how each classroom had to donate something like 127 cans! I'm telling Toni how I took Josh shopping with me over the weekend - I thought it would be good for him to see how much things cost. It worked out to about 4 or 5 cans per kid. What? Josh's class was supposed to bring soup. So I picked up a bunch of soup, and the school also wanted us to donate a hat and gloves. I'm prattling on about how  I counted it up and I was not happy. I figured between all those cans of soup and the hat and gloves, I didn't save any money at all, and how I didn't understand how that helped us deal with the economy.

This is embarrassing. The first thing Toni says is she thinks when they said the economy they meant for other people who might have trouble putting food on the plates. Then she tells me her husband Jack lost his job - six weeks ago! God, where have I been? I know, I felt bad. And Toni's struggling with her mom's breast cancer too - I just felt awful. It was a wake up call, let me tell you. It's just wrong that it was a surprise to discover that there really was much to be thankful for, after all.