My Hut Is On Fire

So a man washes up on a deserted island. There is nothing but some wood, fruit and some flint. He starts a small fire careful to keep the rest of the wood out of the way of the small hut he built. The man had to gather more fruit so he left the fire burning. When he returned...the hut was on fire.

The man cries out, "GOD why did you take away my only shelter! How unfair and cruel!" The man curls up in a ball to battle the elements for the night still angry at God and himself for not having the foresight to put the fire out.

The next day a boat rows to shore. The man is ecstatic.
"How did you find me? I thought for sure I would die here." he asks the sailors.
"It was your signal fire. We would have passed right by if not for the high flames." They replied.


Today a woman named Kathy Souders slashed the tires of four postal vehicles at a London Ohio Post Office. Why? She had just lost her home and wanted somewhere to live. Kathy decided Federal Prison was better than living on the street.

That is a serious problem. I hear on the news that the economy might be turning around. Things should be looking up. Soon. Maybe.

Stories like the one I just heard make me wonder if it's soon enough, though. I mean, when old ladies are committing federal crimes to get a place to sleep at night...seems like a problem to me.

And the government types are pontificating in Washington about what they are going to do or what needs to be done. Where is the ACTION? I do not believe that the American people can really rely on our government to get us out of this. This country needs to change it's attitude. The government is not going to ever hand us enough money to get out of the individual holes we are all in. The only way we are going to overcome is to help each other.

My plan is pretty simple...

Every person knows one person who knows how to do something. Cook. Clean. Sew. Fix Cars. Fix computers. Paint. Reseal driveways. You get my point? If we could only start bartering for what we need. Yes, it would not stimulate the economy in any real way. But someone has to buy the cleaning supplies, right? Or the paint? So, if we are buying the little supplies and have a friend do the work for, lets say, dinner. We stimulate the economy in a little way that would add up to big bucks if enough people do it.

It is all about doing the little things. More about giving others hope than money. Nobody has money anymore. That's just a fact of life. But when we run out of hope...well that's when the real trouble starts. That is when people do desperate things. That is when hearts are broken and families are torn.

If everyone could just see all of the huts on fire maybe we would be quicker to come to the rescue. And those of us with our huts burning down should try to remember that maybe our hut burning down is leading to something better that we can not even imagine.