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Soup's on
Times are tough. And tougher times are coming. After many years of waiting, the trickle down economic theory is finally panning out - with a decidedly different outcome than the one promised. So it's time to make some changes.
I can't do anything about four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline. I can't do anything about $4 milk or $2 bread or well, there are a lot of things I can't do anything about.
Years ago, when I was a stay-at-home mom, I really did stay at home. We only had the one car and Danny used it for his daily commute to work in the city. I learned how to plan carefully and if my careful plans failed, I learned in short order how to "make-do." Weekly paydays meant weekly trips to the grocery store. After all, the grocery store was four miles across town, not an easy trek for a mom and three little ones. It was an unthinkable journey back, with those three little ones in tow and one or two bags of groceries to carry. Thankfully, there was a convenience store just across the highway for the bread and milk emergencies, but it came with decidedly inconvenient prices and so was not an option I exercised with any frequency.
Today's high gasoline prices have brought those days to mind once again. I'm used to zipping out to Wal-Mart or Schmick's Market on a whim. After all, they're only about two miles away from my front door. Unless it's the holiday shopping season, there is seldom a long wait in line for the next available checker and if I'm just picking up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk at Wal-Mart, I can always self-check, and I'm out the door.
Not anymore. The shopping list is back in vogue and is comprehensive in scope. We typically shop early on Saturday mornings to beat the crowds and when we leave, we leave knowing that there'll be no more quick trips throughout the week. We're sticking to our guns and not only are we saving fuel, we're saving cash - fewer trips to the store means less impulse buying. Okay, so we didn't get garlic toast with our spaghetti the other night. It wasn't on the list so it wasn't in the cupboard. We made do with buttered bread.
People of significant years are nodding their heads as they read that phrase "make-do." After all, they wrote the book on "Making Do." Apparently, it went out of print sometime in the early '90s with the advent of easy credit terms and skyrocketing housing values. I shudder to think of the steep learning curve some of the younger folks will face, when suddenly even a Happy Meal at McDonald's is too high priced when you factor in the cost of idling through the drive-thru. But, times, they are a changin' and they are going to get tougher the farther down the road we go. Time to learn to make do.
SUVs are going to have to stay garaged for the most part, though they'll be the perfect "town trip" vehicle for when the town-folk have to head to the market one day a week, or every two weeks, or once a month. Gone are the neighborhood grocery stores; long gone are the days when you could hand a couple of dollars to your 9-year-old and send him (by himself, no less) down the street for a bagful of groceries and the promise of a nickel candy bar by way of payment for his trouble. Now even "townies" have to plot and plan to have plenty in the pantry in case the neighbor runs short on sugar, milk or eggs. It has been quite a number of years since I had to lend any such thing to a short-handed friend. So, maybe these days of making do will bring back some sense of neighborhood to our community again. Though I'd hate to have to start a pot of "Stone Soup," I do remember the recipe, taken from an adaptation of a story by the Brother's Grimm:
Stone Soup
Three large round stones from the river, simmering in a large pot of water.
(The other ingredients come from the admittedly impoverished community, but the resulting combination was a delicious feast sufficient to fill every empty belly.)
The Stone Soup tale reminds all of us, that as hard as things are, we all have something to contribute to a neighbor in need, whether it is a meager cup of sugar to finish the recipe for a birthday cake or a shopping spree for the Pantry. For those who would follow Jesus, the coming days will be filled with the opportunity to be the open, giving hands of our Lord.
"'Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'" Matthew 25:34-36 (NIV)
Things you won't see in heaven:
Stone soup pots
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