[reduced, reused and recycled poverty]

Tomorrow is trash day here in Koreatown which means you can see people getting home from work and putting out their trash cans about 10 feet from the curb--which, when you're driving, seems to be in the middle of the street.

Thursday night/Friday morning doesn't just mean garbage day. For some it means pay day.

Unfortunately, that pay day requires work that most people in my circles would deem nearly unfathomable. Men and women from all over the neighborhood walk up and down the streets--irolo, ardmore, kingsley, mariposa, harvard-- and go through everyone's curbside cans to gather recyclables. Some wear gloves, others don't. Some push grocery carts, others carry garbage bags. Some use the money returned to them for gas to feed their car, others buy food to feed their children.

It's one of those harsh realities of life that you hate to see and when you do, pray that it never becomes your own reality.

and so I pray...

...not for myself but for all those who are struggling to make ends meet and must resort to digging through garbage cans... and other exploitative and provocative activities that I am too naive to realize and/or understand.