Poor Choice
By Niall Twohig
Why is it that Ma, a nurse, has no choice but to work into her 76th year; while my brother’s friend the investment banker was able to retire comfortably by his 30th?
Why is it that Da, a counselor for drug addicts, had a pension that lasted only five years; While a Big Pharma CEO who pumped opiates into our veins has enough money for several lifetimes?
Why is it that my wife and I can barely afford to live in the cities where we teach; while a techie, with no ties to the community, can afford a first and second home?
Why was my sister, who raises three good boys, chained to an abusive husband who said his was the only work that counted? Why does our society turn a blind eye to her work when it will one day depend on her three good boys?
Why is it that those who clean the big homes can’t even afford tiny ones?
Why is it that those who care for rich people’s babies have no one to care for their own?
Why is it that those who mop stadium floors, wipe seats, and clean urinals make an unlivable fraction of the college coaches and performers who fill the stadiums?
Why is it that those who care for our health cannot take care of their own?
Why is it that those who care for our sick and dying loved ones are getting ill at higher rates and dying too young?
Why is it that those who march for peace can’t live peacefully while those who build war machines can?
In this thing-oriented society
those who care for others have been devalued.
They don’t count.
What counts are those who dig up and pump out, those who produce new shiny things, those who fill seats, who catch eyes, who invent efficient algorithms, who make money on money.
“Greed is good,” says Wall Street.
“Growth is good,” says the Economist.
So, make the “wise” choice:
Choose the secure path,
fend for yourself,
do what needs
to be done
for your own.
Can you see how that wise choice
moves us away from
what is essential
to life itself?
In my opinion,
better to make
the poor choice—
to care.