$40,000 a year to live in a nursing home facility. That's what the financial report on Monday Morning's NPR morning news said. The poor can't pay this and their Social Security can't cover it so the Government pays the facility the difference. Social Security is charactorized as the most successful retirement plan in history, but I don't know anyone who can live on Social Security. I have a relative who worked for many years at fairly good jobs paying $50,000 a year. She's getting a little over a thousand a month now. There is no way she can live on that., and due to a catastrophic hospitalization she was stripped of her savings. There are a lot of people like her- they are getting social security, they have little in the way of savings and they can' pay rent and buy food on their social security. The minute they get dragged into court and evicted the solution is to get them into a "home" where it costs $40,000 a year to keep them- but the government won't come up with the extra $300 monthly to keep them in their own apartment. Visiting a friend in a facility I saw what she gets to eat- canned green beans, a cup of clear orange gelatine, a white roll and a pat of margerine, some kind of creamed chicken thing on a half cup of white rice...What normal person would want that to look forward to for the rest of their life? There was also a salad- a leaf of iceberg lettuce with a hard slice of tomato with a dab of orange salad dressing. Most people would be much happier in their own homes with a little extra money to get their own food. I guarantee you they won't be eating any half cups of orange gelatine and white iceberg lettuce. Isn't it cheaper to goive someone an extra $500 a month so they can pay rent and eat than to pay a nursing home $3500 a month to keep them in a place where they must share a room, give up most of their own possessions, and eat institutional food for the rest of their life?

"Enjoy your day"... This little saying has migrated from someplace in the islands to New York City. The first time I heard it was from a client from Jamaica. We'd get together to talk, and at the end of the appointment, as we parted, he'd give me a wide smile and say "Enjoy your day." I next heard it from a woman at some City Agency after we completed some complicated transaction- she gave me the same dazzling smile as we parted and said "Enjoy your day." Now I'm starting to hear it around the neighborhood- the laundromat, in the copy shop, here and there. I don't know what island it come from, but I want to go there. It carries much more good will than "Good Day," which is too curt, or "Good bye " "Good Afternoon,"" Good Evening" "Chow", and all the other parting statements. "Enjoy your day " is like a reminder of what life is all about- we are here to enjoy time, to savor the hours, to take time for a walk in the park, to stop on the way home to pick up shrimp, to sit and read a book, or look at art.