{"id":2298,"date":"2013-12-11T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2016-10-19T09:03:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T13:03:12","slug":"moving-out-of-deprivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/12\/moving-out-of-deprivation.html","title":{"rendered":"Moving out of deprivation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. He was recently asked, \u201cDo you like living in the United States better than Italy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Circumstances had a lot to do with his answer. \u201cLiving in the United States is better,\u201d said Tom.<\/p>\n

Tom easily remembers being eleven-years old and living on the family farm. \u201cDuring World War II, the Germans moved onto our farm, into our house, and made us live and sleep in the barn, for nine months. We lived with the animals, but the animals became fewer and fewer because the Germans ate them for meat. We\u2019d try to hide our stuff, but the Germans would find it and consume it or take it away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom remembers making shoes out of Papyrus. He said, \u201cPeople did not have shoes during the war, all the shoes were gone. We made shoes out of anything we could, but it wasn\u2019t easy because even the papyrus was killed off due to a devastating insect.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told his story with more curiosity than animosity.<\/p>\n

Which made me curious.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t even born when Tom was going through these deprivations. By the time of my birth, Tom was in the United States, working at a concrete business, about to married and start a family.<\/p>\n

Tom quickly moved<\/a> on to another story. He said in his heavy Italian accent, \u201cOh, this is funny\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s wife had to get use to his Italian habits, one of which is eating unusual foods; artichokes being one of his favorite. \u201cBut, you want fresh artichokes,\u201d Tom said. \u201cAnd, you want the whole stem that holds the artichoke flower because it is most delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day, Tom had purchased artichokes on stems and brought them home. But, he had to deliver a load of cement, so he was away from the house for a few hours. When he returned, his wife had placed the artichokes in a vase of water and was all dressed up in an evening gown. She said, \u201cOh, Tom, the flowers you brought me are beautiful, let\u2019s go out to dinner tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom explained to her the artichokes were dinner. After some coaxing, she cooked the artichokes and learned to love the vegetable.<\/p>\n

Tom and his wife are celebrating 50 years of marriage.<\/p>\n

Curiosity allowed me my vision to pierce past the heavy accent and stories of loss and deprivation to discover Tom\u2019s reality. His reality resembles the realities of characters in the Bible who are pillars of wisdom, foresight, humor, joy, forgiveness, and willingness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. He was recently asked, \u201cDo you like living in the United States better than Italy?\u201d Circumstances had a lot to do with his answer. \u201cLiving in the United States is better,\u201d said Tom. Tom easily remembers being eleven-years old and living on the family…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[1202,1201,1199,1200,1198],"class_list":["post-2298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","category-at-work","tag-delivering-concrete","tag-german-soldiers","tag-making-shoes","tag-not-giving-up","tag-world-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nMoving out of deprivation - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/12\/moving-out-of-deprivation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moving out of deprivation - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. 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