When I was younger, I never equated poverty with lack of funds. Poverty was and is a mentality, not an economic state.
I grew up in extremes. In my childhood, I experienced lavish wealth, with housekeepers and nannies and gardeners and personal cooks. I had Christmases filled with presents, and took vacations around the world. After the safaris and shopping trips, my mother and I spent her last years living with my grandma, in a shotgun house in the Deep South. We often scrapped together nickels and dimes and pennies to buy .39 cheeseburgers from the nearby fast food joint. We were strapped for money more times than not, but we were never poor.
The most important thing my mother gave me, besides entrance into the world, was a world view. She exposed me to different cultures, and mentalities. I understood that the world was immerse, and that no one is as limited as they believe. I rejected the idea of poverty as a lifestyle.
