{"id":25667,"date":"2025-07-30T01:16:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=25667"},"modified":"2025-07-30T01:16:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:16:05","slug":"in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/","title":{"rendered":"In A Nation that Does Not Welcome Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Children
image via Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jimmy\u2019s boy comes by to inspect the garden at least twice a day.<\/h3>\n

He is terribly lonesome now that the Dodgers are gone<\/a>, and there\u2019s still a few weeks before school begins again. I said he\u2019ll be old enough to take lessons at the church outreach this year, and I\u2019ll be honored if he\u2019ll come to my art class. I promised I\u2019d take him to the dinosaur museum<\/a> as soon as we catch up on bills and renew our membership, and he jumped up and down in excitement. But there\u2019s nothing to do right now. We are both bored silly.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, Jimmy\u2019s boy brings an umbrella with him when he visits. It\u2019s about the same size as he is, so I see the black fabric circle looming up the porch steps like a flying saucer. He explains he\u2019s using it to keep cool in this awful heat, and he takes it with him when we go to see the garden. Sometimes, he leaves the umbrella in my foyer and comes in to read Adrienne\u2019s old books. \u201cI need first grade or Kindergarten reading because I\u2019m bad at reading. But I need second grade math because math is my favorite subject!\u201d And I set him up with a stack of books to borrow.<\/p>\n

I worry about him. I worry about all the children in the neighborhood.<\/h3>\n

While we\u2019re in the garden, Jimmy\u2019s boy talks about his day. Sometimes he tells the truth, and sometimes he spins yarns, and sometimes he mixes a little of both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if so-and-so is in jail or the hospital right now,\u201d he mentioned once, naming his eldest brother. I knew he was telling the truth, because I\u2019d seen the red and blue lights up the block and I knew his eldest brother has health problems. I assured him that his brother was in the hospital, not jail, and would be out soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know that when my dad dies, I\u2019ll become a mechanic?\u201d he said another day, and I had to ask him to back it up a bit. Apparently he\u2019d heard of the concept of an inheritance somewhere, and somebody had mentioned he\u2019d get his father\u2019s set of car repair tools one day, and he filled in the rest with his imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday I was in the middle of a shootout!\u201d he said, on yet another occasion. \u201cI ran through the middle of it. Two gangs were fighting! I grabbed two of them by the neck to defend myself! The police got there and let me off with a warning and I ran away!\u201d and I knew that that was a tall tale\u2013 though I still warned him not to grab people by the neck. The police wouldn\u2019t let him off with a warning in real life!<\/p>\n

Today, I caught Jimmy\u2019s boy committing a bit of petty larceny.<\/h3>\n

My block doesn\u2019t have any driveways, only on-the-street parking. The neighborhood children know that when Sacre Bleu<\/a> is missing from the curb, the Pezzulos aren\u2019t in. When the ugly blue Nissan reappears in front of the house, they come running to say hello and ask for popsicles or cookies. And sometimes, the absence of the Nissan means it\u2019s time to get into trouble. Today, as I drove up with Adrienne, I saw Jimmy\u2019s boy walking up between my house and the house of the man who brought water<\/a>, clutching a small zucchini to his chest. He started and ran when he saw me.<\/p>\n

I followed him to the backyard, losing sight of him for a minute. As I tailed him I passed four of my paste tomatoes: two red, one yellow, one yellow and red, all smashed on the sidewalk as if they\u2019d been used for water balloons. When I caught up, his hands were empty. I interrogated about the squash, and at first he started to fib. Finally, though, he showed me where he\u2019d hidden the loot, in the tall grass near a basement window. But I couldn\u2019t get him to plead guilty to the tomato theft.<\/p>\n

Now it was my turn to tell a fib. \u201cWell then, in addition to the camera on the front and back porch, I\u2019m going to put a camera in my kitchen window to catch the tomato vandal! Will you help me catch him if I get him on film?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, he promised to help. He adjusted my porch camera to face the sunflowers, saying he wanted to take some films of the birds eating the centers.<\/p>\n

Jimmy\u2019s boy showed me the things he\u2019d found in the garden while I was gone: a pie pumpkin, almost completely ripe. A yellow summer squash as long as my hand. A whole array of paste tomatoes, almost ready to harvest and cook. New sunflowers in red and yellow.<\/p>\n

I worried again.<\/p>\n

I always worry about the children.<\/h3>\n

I worry about the boy, and his brother with the health problems, because they say the cost of healthcare is going to go up and rural hospitals are going to close.<\/p>\n

I worry about him when I see him swiping food to play with, because the cost of food is going up, and the food stamp disbursements nearly every child here depends on<\/a> are going to go down.<\/p>\n

I worry when he tells me he\u2019d like to go to the museum and he wants to borrow my books, because all children deserve an education<\/a>, but few in our country seem to value education. Some seem positively offended by the idea that a child should learn. Some seem to think that learning is dangerous.<\/p>\n

We have plenty of money for bombs<\/a>. We have plenty of money for airplanes for rich men<\/a>. We have lots of money to make sure rich people don\u2019t have to pay taxes.\u00a0<\/a>But we don\u2019t have any money for children. And I can\u2019t imagine a more terrible country, than one that has money for everything except children.<\/p>\n

A just society would put the children first. No child would ever have to go without food or medicine, or a place to live, or an excellent school. We\u2019d be throwing money at social workers and food pantries, libraries and museums, playgrounds and all kinds of things for children. But I don\u2019t live in that society. I live in this one. So I show children the garden, and teach them to bake<\/a>,\u00a0 and help out at the church outreach<\/a>. And I know that\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine a more godless society, than a society that will not be good to children. And I live in one, so I worry.<\/p>\n

Jimmy\u2019s boy finished entertaining me and went home.<\/p>\n

I took the squash inside, and put it with the others. I\u2019d better make another batch of zucchini bread for the neighbors this week.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a fit world for children, but they come anyway. It\u2019s time we all rose to the occasion and helped them.<\/p>\n

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Mary Pezzulo is the author of\u00a0Meditations on the Way of the Cross,\u00a0<\/a>The Sorrows an<\/a>d Joys of Mary<\/a>, and\u00a0Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to \u201cThe Little Portion\u201d on\u00a0paypal<\/a>\u00a0or Mary Pezzulo on\u00a0venmo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jimmy\u2019s boy comes by to inspect the garden at least twice a day. He is terribly lonesome now that the Dodgers are gone, and there\u2019s still a few weeks before school begins again. I said he\u2019ll be old enough to take lessons at the church outreach this year, and I\u2019ll be honored if he\u2019ll come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":20558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1738,14783],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-american-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nIn A Nation that Does Not Welcome Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I worried again.\u00a0I always worry about the children.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In A Nation that Does Not Welcome Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I worried again.\u00a0I always worry about the children.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steel Magnificat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T05:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2023\/08\/children-7218015_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/\",\"name\":\"In A Nation that Does Not Welcome Children\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-30T05:16:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-30T05:16:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\"},\"description\":\"I worried again.\u00a0I always worry about the children.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2025\/07\/in-a-nation-that-does-not-welcome-children\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In A Nation that Does Not Welcome Children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\",\"name\":\"Steel Magnificat\",\"description\":\"Everything is grace\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\",\"name\":\"Mary Pezzulo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mary Pezzulo\"},\"description\":\"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. 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