Perspective

Over the holiday break, visiting Betsy’s family in Michigan, I picked up a book at the Dollar Tree. “Guerilla Lovers” by Vince Antonucci.  It’s a Christian-themed book that essentially argues generous, selfless acts of kindness and love are the most powerful tools to win people to the Christian faith. There are many, many things I love about it (I’m about three-quarters of the way through), and some things I like less. Over the next few days, I suspect I’ll be touching on some topics in the book.

For now, here are some stats listed in the book, regarding how Americans stack up economically against the rest of the world. The source is not listed, but they’re comparable to similar posts I’ve seen online.

-          1.2 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water

-          One billion people live in extreme poverty – meaning limited access to food, water, and shelter. About every three seconds, someone in the world dies of hunger

-          Eighty percent of the world’s population lives in substandard housing

-          Seventy percent is unable to read

-          Only one percent have a college education

-          Only eight percent own a car (Not the singular there. How many households have two?)

-          If you have money in your wallet, checking, or savings accounts, you are among the richest eight percent in the world.

It’s been said ad nauseam since the Occupy movement erupted, that we’re in the one percent, globally.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt the financial crunch these last couple of weeks, what with the holidays and all, Bets and I traveling to see both of our families. It’s caused me to wake up at 4am, worrying, more than once. (4am seems to be the consistent time that all of what stresses me rushes to the forefront of my brain.)

It’s almost cliché to list these kinds of stats, I know, but they do bring some much needed perspective.