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| Mmmmm...a tithes worth of Nachos! |
The other day, there were people using the kitchen in the house I live in during lunch. Since Urban Servant Corps hadn't officially started, I figured I'd just go out to lunch...sort of like a personal "last supper" of sorts before I started USC, which has a major principle of simplicity.
That means, in part, that I make $75 a month as my stipend for my internship year. It's a great opportunity to learn the difference between needs and wants. It's also a great time to really understand the value of community, as I'm living with 9 other people in a house, and how we can use each other as resources, instead of just having to purchase our happiness.
So, I walked to Qdoba, about 2 blocks from my house, and my nachos ended up being $7.50-ish. As I paid, I reflected on my purchase, and that in just a few short days that would be 10% of my monthly salary. I reflected that just weeks earlier, I would have thought nothing about spending this much money on lunch...after all, a couple friends and I have a slight addiction to Jimmy John's. But now, everything is upside down, and I do think about how I spend money.
The point of this, of course, is not to hoard everything, and pinch pennies, and be overly litigious about money, but instead to learn that we live in a society that measures success on how much money we have, and not how much we can get from community. So, while lunch has a price, the value I know I will receive from community (I'm also not kidding myself...it WILL be hard at times, stay tuned!) is priceless.
