I’m happy to be working again. It feels good to be productive, to be earning money and to have some sense of security. Over the last week I’ve realized, however, that it’s very easy to quickly get caught up in work and the rat race and forget or ignore what other people are going through.
I was struck by the individual stories in the NYTimes segment, Living with Less, about how individuals being affected. They profile Mark Cooper, for example, who used to be an executive at a Fortune 500 company managing over 250 people. Now he’s working as a janitor to ensure he keeps health insurance since his wife is a breast cancer survivor and won’t be insurable, if they go uninsured even temporarily. Closer to home, one of my good friends’ father, who used to own a BMW dealership, is now delivering newspapers.
I can’t and won’t take having a job for granted and I won’t forget that I’m lucky to have found work.
