In small towns and rural areas, it is not unusual to see homes in one community that reflect a wide range of economic successes.  A huge brick or stone house may sit on a large piece of well-kept property adjoining a small run-down shack or mobile home on a small overgrown plot of land.    People in those homes often go to church together, shop in the same local grocery store, and sometimes work in their gardens alongside one another.  Most of the time they know each other pretty well.  So most of the people who have done really well know some who haven’t and often know why they have not done so well. 

In more heavily populated urban areas, there are whole communities where houses look very much alike, or at least they look like they have cost about the same.  In these areas, we often buy our homes, not because they are convenient to our workplace, but because they are in a neighborhood that fits our ability to pay.  So most of the people in our neighborhoods are of a similar social status as we are.  Someone once said that in terms of the value of your house, the “best place to live is in the least expensive house on the more expensive street.”  So what we often do is to look in a neighborhood just beyond our means and hope that the price of one of the houses has been lowered to a price we can afford!  Because the houses are generally grouped according to price, we see whole neighborhoods that look really good and those that look really run-down.  We talk to new people who are seeking houses about “good neighborhoods” and “bad neighborhoods.” 

This brings us to the question of what impact our residence has on our worth .  How stable does my home have to be for my life to be of worth?  On a scale beginning with a mansion and going downward to being homeless, at what point exactly does where we live mean that we are less important?  At the top, we have home owners-- mansions, large homes, medium and small homes. Then we have mobile homes.  One well-known author says that as a child he was playing on the lawn in front of the mobile home his family owned when some people drove by and yelled “trailer trash” at him and his brother.  He said that those people didn’t care that the lawn was neat, the home was clean, and his family worked hard to have a comfortable place to live.  They just looked at the fact that their home was a mobile home.  As a successful writer, he has never forgotten the hurt it caused him.  Now let’s look at other living options.   In addition to owning homes people may choose to rent houses, apartments, or condos, and pay a monthly fee.  Like homes that are purchased, these may be very expensive and on a par with some of the above, or may be located in “undesirable” neighborhoods.  When people are unable to either own or rent a place to live, they may be forced to move in with family or friends.  If that is not an option, they may live in their vehicle for a while, or if they can afford it, stay in a motel.  When that fails, they seek a shelter where other people without a home stay, or they are forced to stay outside, under a bridge maybe, or sleep on a park bench. One reason some people do not seek shelter at all is that it demands that they admit they are homeless. 

From the viewpoint of our society, the best place to be is at the top—living in a huge mansion or house that is well-furnished and well-stocked with food, beverages, and all the modern conveniences.  But living that way often costs us.  If we look behind those fancy curtains we may see tears and anguish, broken relationships, and dashed hopes.  So the fact that we have our mansion doesn’t necessarily make us happy; it just makes us look better to other people.  On the other hand, the worst thing to be in our society is homeless.  When you have no place to live, you are nothing except homeless.  People fear you, the police suspect you, and the people who try to help pity you.  But nobody respects you for who you are.  You may be gifted, intelligent, caring, and competent, but people generally don’t see you in any of those ways when you’re homeless.

I’ve been talking about how our society is, not whether that’s a good or bad thing.  We place great value on the ability to own a nice home.  It’s not just something  the rich value.  It’s the American way.  It’s really not enough just to have shelter.  We want to have more than just a warm, comfortable place to sleep.   It is almost impossible for us to think outside this paradigm.  Who wouldn’t want to live in a nice, well-kept home in a beautiful neighborhood?  I don’t know anyone, do you?  But what if we valued something else?  What if, for example, the most important thing was to be generous?  What if we judged ourselves and were judged according to how willing we were to give up what we had for someone else’s benefit? Or what if we valued hospitality above all else?  What if our worth was tied to how hospitable we were to strangers?  In the future we will look at some cultures where home ownership is not as important as it is to us.