Science

One of the stories quite a few people tell me starts like this:

“I grew up in a very poor neighbourhood. We were always short of money, and had to make do with the bare essentials”

Another one I hear occasionally starts:

“In my early childhood one of my parents ran off and left us …” In each of these cases, what I cannot tell from the story itself is what the teller has learnt from it. This is because poverty in childhood sometimes leads a person to strive for betterment. This kind of person has learnt that you have to stretch yourself, to go for it, and to make sure that, through your own endeavors, you achieve what you could not achieve in childhood. But for others, the same kind of impoverished childhood teaches them that money can’t buy you love. These people learn that the best things in life are free, and find contentment in family, community and humility.