Perspective

I have been blessed to know a wide variety of people here in Brussels. The women at the AWCB are wonderful, but they are very similar to the people I know in the States -- their husbands make good money, and they have very comfortable lives and an ample amount of disposable income. When you hang around with them it is easy to feel bad that you can't buy everything you want. They don't always understand how we went without a car for a year and a half becuase we didn't have enough money for one. The lifestyle over here lends itself to a lot of traveling, so it can be easy to become blase about taking yet another trip.

However, I also have two other groups of friends and acquaintances. The first is my French class. The majority of these people are immigrants to Belgium and even though they might have had some schooling in their home country, most are either unemployed or doing menial labor here. In a drastic contrast from the Women's Club, I am one of the few people in the class who has a car.

The second group is our friends from church, many of whom are missionaries and live off the support of others. Obviously, making a living off others' donations doesn't leave much room for big vacations, even though their work is so worthwhile.

I say all of this because I have really been embarrassed telling some people we are going on a two-week cruise. Yet at the same time, when I do tell certain people it helps to remind me of just how lucky I am and what an amazing experience the cruise will be. Knowing this many different types of people has been a good reminder to me of the different economic classes in the world. Think you are poor? Maybe compare yourself to someone else and then you may feel embarrassingly rich instead. I am not saying that I put down others to make myself feel better. I just think looking all around the world rather than just straight up helps to give perspective on the big picture.