That's the complete opposite to the way my rather more staid Methodist relatives raised me. Hand-me-downs were God's gifts to growing kids, and my New England grandma's mantra was the standard "use it up/wear it out/make it do/do without." She would have shaken her head and tutted in disapproval at your church folk's wrong-headed ways.
Read one two many "minimal mindfulness" websites, eh? I feel this. In my bones (the single one I have left anyway--I gave all the others to Habitat for Humanity).
I would print this picture out but my color printer is dead so I'll just look at it on my computer as I aspire to be this content some day.
Robert Culp. (Sorry if I'm the 91st person to say this.)
Yes, I was in fact mostly talking about emergency treatment, but there are also systems in place to help those with no money for even long-term care. Unfortunately several factors make it difficult to get healthcare to everyone who needs it when they need it (for one thing, our country is HUGE--the UK is about the size of Florida; for another, there are a lot of isolated rural communities, and those are just physical factors that don't touch on the politics). As I said before, this system is not ideal. But when it comes to *emergencies* like your water is breaking or you are bleeding and it won't stop (as happened to me, and I had no insurance, and yes I still owe money, but I'm ALIVE), you need to get to the hospital, money be damned.
You can still get medical treatment in the US even if you have no money. You can even get an ambulance! Even without insurance! Sure, you'll get billed later, but you can work that out and they can't make you pay if you have no money. This will involve talking to people and filling out forms and much headache, but it's better than sitting at home dying because you are afraid of getting a bill. A lot of people here simply don't understand our own system, because there's no concerted effort to explain it to everyone, you're just sort of left on your own to find out. Also, this is a huge, spread-out country, with a lot of isolated communities, and the ridiculous individualistic "bootstrap" theory that reigns over life here means asking for help is something people don't like to do.
Note: this is far from an ideal system (in fact it sucks, even with "Obamacare"), but the idea people have that Americans just can't get medical care unless they can pay cash up front is wrong.
I'm really envious of his orange-pulp-removing skills. Despite the fact that I grew up in Florida I just can't manage to remove pulp from any citrus fruit without getting soaked in juice and ending with a pile of torn-up pulp instead of neat sections.
What is it with becoming a dad and suddenly having to wake up two hours before sunrise? I used to put it down to my father being a teacher and having to be at work by 7am, but now I don't know.
Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only one. *basks in Is Not Alone feels*
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andrea harris 
Ruckus