For better or worse, frugality has swept the nation as the economy takes its time working toward a rebound. It’s a necessary adaptation for everyone in lean times; we must save every dollar possible to get by. As a result, organizations that depend largely on donors (i.e. people with money to spare for a cause) suffer as much as anyone. Tree House is no exception.
Yes, I could take this opportunity to discuss the scrimping and saving taking place in our daily work lives, or to bemoan the difficulty of fundraising in the depths of a recession. But I’m going to write about something far more upsetting, much more difficult; I’m going to expose the sacrifices that our beloved Tree House cats have had to make in order to survive these hard times.
Take Vera, for example: having been spoiled as a child, she has become accustomed to all the finest things. Be it a designer dress, a diamond necklace, or the latest high-tech gadget, Vera gets what Vera wants. But ever since the stock market took its downturn, Vera has had to cut back. It’s sad to visit the Willow colony and see her head hang in shame as she sports clothes from last season, bought from a bargain basement…not to mention the dull sorrow in her eyes when Apple released its latest model of iPhone and she was forced to keep the one she already had (purchased two months earlier) rather than upgrade. And, saddest of all (don’t tell her I said so, she would be appalled if she knew it had been broadcasted publicly), the other day I saw her shopping for jewelry…at a thrift store.
But Vera’s hardship isn’t the only sad story in the many lives of Tree House Cats. Janus, who was until recently a successful investor, was forced to move back into Tree House after he lost almost everything. Having become accustomed to hanging out at elite New York clubs with the most beautiful women, drinking expensive champagnes and lighting exotic cigars with burning hundred dollar bills, his fall back to regular life was so traumatic that he insisted on being locked up in his own room in the Palm colony, and now lashes out at many of his visitors. Don’t judge him: he has learned the lesson of the difference between wealth and happiness; he just needs some time to let it sink in before he can accept it and embrace his return to normalcy.
Even Janus, though, doesn’t have the saddest story. Poor Noreen has never known a life of luxury or excess. Though she, too, made her millions through wise investing, she never spent more than a living wage’s worth on herself. Instead, she gave it all away. And now, having regularly spent her gains on charitable donations (she was particularly fond of charities that provided food for less fortunate animals than herself), all the money is gone, and she sits idly by on top of the computer in her office, sullen with the idea that she’s no longer making a difference in the world, unconvinced by our constant reminders that she brightens all of our lives. Her quiet disappointment with herself is a reminder that even the easiest sacrifices in these troubled months have not been easy at all.
Stop by and visit these cats. Remind them that, even though life is hard right now, it will get better. Show them that there are riches to be gained in the world besides money. And of course, please, as much as you are able, continue to support Tree House.
posted by Justin W.
