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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>  For some people just trying a new
> pattern of cooking and grocery buying can cause the
> same apprehension.
> 

The fulcrum of the matter, the can of tomatoes at the bottom of the pyramid 
whose removal topples the stack, the twig whose removal looses the log jamb 
is 
this:  (says I)  The notion that our circumstances are by chance, fate, what 
"they" did to us, bad luck  rather than our decisions and actions.

Those in good health who sit on a mortgage free farmstead and can live off a 
mason jar of quarters for a month are told that they are just "lucky".  In 
the 
mindset to which I allude the difference between those living an independent 
life of their druthers and those hopelessly trapped in a cycle of poverty and 
dependence is simply a roll of the dice.

Only when that notion is dislodged is there any hope of improving the lot of 
the dependent.  It isn't, as you will hear suggested, blaming the downtrodden 
for their lot.  It's more like pointing out that to relieve the terrible pain 
in one's toe one should first stop hitting one's toe with a hammer.