Blue Sweater No. 3

Upon reading the last chapter of the Blue Sweater, thought I haven't experienced what Novogratz has, I completely agree with her life lessons. Money can buy a lot of things, and it may even be able to buy happiness, but there is no better currency than trust. Without trust, no relationships can be built. People distrust each other and foster resentment within them. Once relationships are built, then are we able to strengthen the most important quality within ourselves, human empathy. Trusting someone is hard, but the understand their backgrounds, their feelings, connects us all on a deeper level. A deeper empathy will help remove the prejudice that comes with low-income people. Most people think of low-income people as incapable and helpless, when they are in fact the most resilient and capable of deriving happiness and joy from the simplest of pleasures. I think it's great how we want to help the poor by donating money or goods, but simply walking by them is useless. They need to be given opportunities to grow.

Though this is not completely relevant to the blue sweater, it's unfortunate that buy one give one companies such as Toms thrive on this idea of charity. Buying a pair of toms means giving a pair to a child in need. Sure a child gets shoes, but that means they don't need to buy shoes. Shoemakers in the area then lose their customers and ultimately go out of business. What should be done is that these companies should donate these goods to local markets to create a sustainable economy.