Are you aware enough to notice a karmic slap when it happens to you? I’ve been lucky that way. The Universe wastes no time in delivering that painful lesson, and I’m happy to say, I recognize it immediately. This doesn’t make me angry or resentful. It makes me grateful. And no, that doesn’t make me a better person. The wisdom gained simply ends up making me a decent human.
HHS is deciding what foods might be banned from SNAP purchases. The public’s reaction, at least on social media, is filled with judgmental stories of inappropriate purchases. “I saw a man buy lobster”. “They should ban steak”. Do the posters even consider that those could have been one off purchases?
I understand the sentiment involved. Yet, I’m not so sure I agree with the bans. It’s complicated, and it depends.
I was an after-school grocery store clerk in Western New York at 16. Back then, we were all cross trained, so on any given day, I’d be changing canned goods prices with nail polish remover and an ink stamp, then hopping on the register when the lines got long, or we were short-staffed.
One Saturday morning, with limited personnel, a heavy-set woman came into the store, headed to bakery, and brought her package of sweet rolls to my register. Then she brazenly paid for them with FOOD STAMPS!
It’s ‘funny’ about judgment. For all the times my family was forced to eat the most basic, sustaining foods because we were broke – boiled potatoes with Miracle Whip on top as the only dish – you’d think I’d have looked at the rolls and thought, ‘Good on you, lady!’ But I stood in judgment.
At 16, with not much wisdom under my belt, I judged this woman for buying sweet rolls with food stamps on a dreary Saturday morning. How dare she!
I never reconciled that until 25 years later. But the lesson was not lost on me. I got it immediately.
My husband and I had packed up our household and, with our 2-year-old in tow, headed north to make a life in another state. Hubby was a contractor by trade and an exquisite woodworker. He dreamed of a more rural life in which to further his artistic craft. So off we went.
Upon arriving in Idaho, work was scarce, and we needed a financial boost with food stamps and rent subsidies for several months. I was so humiliated at the thought of food stamps that I insisted my hubby do all the shopping when the stamps were involved – seriously.
One day, he came home from the shopping trip with ice cream. ICE CREAM!! We hadn’t allowed ourselves to veer from ‘real food’ in months. What a treat! Oh, but wait…my mind immediately flashed to the woman in the grocery store that Saturday morning, 25 years earlier. I swear to God, that memory popped in my head along with recall of my judgment of her.
I immediately understood, as if I was inside her heart as she was standing in the checkout line, what a much-needed respite those sweet rolls were for her. Life is hard at times. We need a boost to help us feel ‘not so destitute.’ That’s what the sweet rolls were about. That’s what the ice cream was about.
I rolled that incident around in my head, looking at how we got into our circumstance, the choices we made, and how we would get out. Plenty of insight floated into my mind and heart that day.
There have been many karmic lessons along the way since then. Some have been averted because when I’m judging, I remember how God helps us stay in our lane with that predicable upcoming lesson.
I hope the powers that be at HHS choose wisely when banning foods.
More than that, I hope those standing in judgment eventually come to a place of grace.
