Lucky

Listening to NPR on Friday night as we drove home after going out for supper, JT and I heard some stories about the devastation in Haiti.  We talked about how awful and scary it must be to live in Haiti right now.  I explained that when an earthquake of this magnitude occurred in San Francisco in 1989 less than 75 people died.  I did this so that he would understand that what happened in Haiti wasn't just the bad luck of living someplace that is earthquake-prone but was much more about the bad luck that lands a nation into a circumstance and cycle of devastating poverty.

In some respects, understanding poverty is an awfully complicated task; more than the average Nobel Laureate can understand let alone a sassy 4th grader in New Jersey.  But JT is nearly 10 and that's plenty old enough to understand how lucky he is to have a comfortable home with a warm bed and a steady supply of food, love, and books.  That these are things he and I are able to consider essential and not luxuries is part of the lucky lives we lead.  All of us in the developed world should understand that.

And so Friday night, as we looked at the map of Haiti and at some pictures of the devastation, we talked about how lucky we are and we listened to some more NPR stories about the many organizations trying to bring relief and supplies to people in Haiti.  I showed him this website for Partners in Health, an organization that was already at work in Haiti, and to whom I had already donated money.  I wanted him to understand that we could do more than understand the tragedy.  In our own small way,  we could help.

And then JT did something that fair took my breath away. He pulled his wallet out of the drawer where he keeps it, emptied the contents of wrinkled bills and change onto the table and announced that he wanted to help.  "Give them all of my money, please, Mama," he said.  And that's exactly what we did.  We decided that JT's donation would go to the UNICEF fund for children in Haiti.

As I tucked him into bed on Friday night, I told him again how proud I am of his wisdom and very kind heart.  He sleepily nodded, and then folded his favorite blanket under his head; safe and warm, so very comfortable and so very, very lucky.