by Dawn LeAnn
Living in a world within a world surrounded by the hustle and bustle of affluence, we have a natural propensity to look around at what others have and feel as though we need more than we already have. When I took this photo, it brought back memories of when I had to wash my clothes and dry them outside, making them crunchy. Some who look upon this photo may think these people are in need of a washer and dryer, when all they really need is clean clothes, which they have in fact managed to accomplish. But in order to have clean clothes that are of the non-crunchy variety, which I dare say we all want, one must have either a washer or a dryer, or at the very least a way to get to a laundromat. The simple things in life that some of us may take for granted, many others can only dream of one day having. So, would you agree that an extra $500 a month might help these people?
Memory:
It was the summer of ’91, I was living in the Mojave Desert and pregnant with my first child. Where I was living, we had no electricity. Not because there wasn’t access but because we couldn’t afford it. Needless to say, I was washing clothes in the tub and hanging them out back to dry. If you’ve ever hung clothes outside you are fully aware of how they tend to dry rather stiff. And without electricity I certainly couldn’t iron them. Though the clothes were a bit crunchy, it was better than when the freezing winter days came and the clothes took so long to dry. Sometimes they had a mildew smell because it took so long. I wished I had the appliances that were so convenient. But hey, our clothes were clean. How lucky and privileged am I to have a washer and dryer now. When you have nothing and then you do, the appreciation just seems to be tenfold. If you see somebody with wrinkled clothes or mildew, assuming they don’t care or are homeless is uncool. You don’t know their story. They may very well doing the very best they can with what they have.