By Kendall Worth!
i want to start this blog post off by making clear that the type of aftermath i am illustrating is not limited to mathematical equations and numbers. According To the community of people i advocate for, the term aftermath also has an entirely different meaning. Even now when we look at the term math in general we look at numbers. The term aftermath also has a mental health related meaning experienced by the community of people living in poverty which the the financially better off community does not see. The meaning of aftermath that comes from the Community of People living in povertry is all about when you bring your lived experinced of social isloation into the mix of living with poverty and mental health issues. This is exactly what many experinced during Thanksgiving 2023.
While this post points out examples from both meanings -- meaning social isolation and numbers, I have since the recent Thanksgiving Holiday, had conversations with people who have given differing opinions on what the meaning of the Term Aftermath and what the different meaning looks like. On the weekend on October 7th, 8th and 9th , Thanksgiving Weekend, was spent by the people living in poverty that I spoke to exactly the way this BLOG post talked about. Basically alone and isolated. Having mental health issues and liviing life with Social isloation are at times not a good mix.
I want to talk a moment about how I spent MY Thanksgiving weekend!
For the 4th year in a row due to factors like inflation and COVID still being around, I was still being pretty careful to stick within my limited social circle. Because of the factors I just mentioned, spending time with family was not an option, once again, this year. However, I will let the readers know that in addition to going around and visiting the homeless encampments and keeping in touch/checking in with others who are socially isolated and live the situation I talk about in my BLOG, I also attended the WAC Open Mike event. I ended up being glad I attended this event because it gave me the opportunity to catch-up with some fellow advocates/activists some of whom, I have not seen in a while. Also, attending this event reminded me that, even though my advocacy is about poverty, mental health and basic income, attending reminded me of the importance of being on the side of workers, because being on the side of workers comes with being an advocate. Also, some who I saw at this event are people who follow my BLOG and who formerly followed me in the Nova Scotia Adv HYPERLINK "https://nsadvocate.org/author/kendall-worth/"ocate during it’s existence. So attending gave me the opportunity to chat with them as well. Attending this open Mike also gave me an oppoertunity to Break up my Thanksgiving weekend A-bit.
Also, on Thanksgiving Monday I spent some time with Carrie Ann Bugden who I talked about in previous posts, Part I and Part II / I offered to spend this time with her knowing what it is like to not have family to spend holidays with. Part#3 of her story is coming soon.
So overall I did the best I could to keep myself out of social isolation over Thanksgiving weekend.
Getting back to what others had to say about how they spent Thanksgiving 2023. Others took Thanksgiving to prepare themselves for what they can expect when Christmas comes in a couple of months time. Even though, at Thanksgiving the feeling of social isolation goes away in a week at the most, at Christmas the feeling of social isolation stays with you for 2 to 3 weeks. In some cases maybe the feeling stays with you for a whole month. While in the past 3 years, some people were not able to travel to see family, because of COVID, but this year it will be primarily because of inflation. I reasonably asked a few better off people I am in contact with, if they noticed any difference in what it cost to feed their families Thanksgiving dinner compared to previous years. While some said 25% to 38% more expensive, others said... not really. The main thing is everyone spent their Thanksgiving despite inflation, the best way they knew how.
One thing that did bother the community of people living in poverty this year is the fact that people were left in the dark as to whether or not places like Brunswick Street Mission, Souls Harbour, or Hope Cottage were putting on their “Thanksgiving Dinners” this year. If they did, they did not advertise it to the community. So some I talked to were left in the dark.
One final Thing I want to touch base on in this post, is, as I pointed out on in this post on Oct 1st., I talked a bit about how Bob how going to spend his Thanksgiving. Over this past Thanksgiving weekend Bob got asked by a general member of his community is there anyone who lives in your apartment building who is also lonely and is looking for some one to spend Thanksgiving with?
Bob asked me to answer this question in this current BLOG post by reminding people of the fallowing statement:
As this post explains, not everyone living in poverty has the privilege of living in an apartment building where they have the opportunity to get to even know their neighbours well enough to become friends with neighbours. I also point out some solution's to the issue. As this post points out, the importance of respecting boundaries, includes you do not go around your apartment Building and knock on doors just for the purpose of trying to make friends with you neighbours. And as this post points out unlike people who live in places like for example Washmill Lake Drive which is the example I use in the BLOG post I just linked, people living in poverty often do not live in apartment buildings where their are places like common rooms and fitness centres located inside the apartment building. Cannot stress this enough!
So everyone spent Thanksgiving the best we knew how.
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