What is poverty? by Odilia Rivera-Santos

I was teaching Spanish and noticed female students whispering as they stared at me. One of the students asked about my Tag Heuer watch, which had been a gift from my husband who is now my ex-husband, and another asked about the shirt I was wearing. They wanted to know the prices of my clothes and watch because they thought I looked cool.
In such a situation, I could take the compliment and keep it moving, but I didn't. The young women were interested in getting attention for being pretty, for wearing the right clothes and for a name brand everyone would recognize as expensive.
The objects were valued as a means of escape from a perception of one's own being as mediocre or not enough. When I was growing up, I valued people who were kind and gentle and if they wore inexpensive clothes or shoes, it didn't matter. I admired people who were intellectually curious and courageous within the confines of their confines.
The young women in front of me kept telling me I was beautiful and 'should' wear something really flashy to my teaching job. All my hopes of instilling a love of intellectualism were lost.
They placed a monetary value on everything that could capture someone's eye and I could envision tiny price tags being pinned on someone's beauty, shoes, clothes, hair length, skin color, etc.

The fetishism of labels is something I grew up with in the Bronx. Wearing the 'right' brand was a way to fit in and avoid criticism. I was never interested in joining the club, so I was the outcast.
I was openly poor in my neighborhood -- wearing the same Levi's for years, tattered sneakers and thrift store clothes.

The fetishism of intellectualism. Reading and getting lost in others' lives as a way of avoiding one's own is also an escape from the self and one's fear of reaching one's potential.
What if you reached your potential and it was a much lower floor than you'd dreamt?

What is poverty?
I would say poverty is thinking intellectualism or money or buying expensive clothes and trinkets can shift your perspective of yourself and your value in the world.
Poverty is chasing things, people and situations not meant for you.
Poverty is enduring every unhappiness in order to look good to others.
Poverty is thinking the best option is to live the life that looks good on paper, that impresses others and pleases people who will never know or care about your real life goals.
Poverty is every moment you delay doing what makes you happy.

The real foundation of the concrete is intangible, which is the biggest joke on us who strive to put the carriage before the horse. We build our mansions on the etherealness of a spiritual knowing of our value, which is not attained through gluttony of intellectual knowledge or acquisition of material things.

Prayer turns out to be the inscrutable true foundation of empire.