Nearest Book Meme

As generously tagged by Mona UmmIbrahim of The Imam's Daughter.

Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the 5th Sentence.
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people

I happened to be reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey, and when I glanced to the right, there it was, lying idly on a stack of school textbooks I had yet to grade.

So on to the 5th sentence of page 123:

In a critical review of the Time Bind (referred to on page 121), Betsy Morris takes exception to Hochschild's view that parents spend more time at work because they find it more pleasant than dealing with challenges of home life.

The next 3 sentences:

"More likely," she says, "is that parents are killing themselves because they have to keep their jobs."

To make ends meet and for other reasons - including the desire to maintain a certain lifestyle-the percentage of families where there is one parent working and one at home with the children has dropped from 66.7 percent in 1940 to 16.9 percent in 1994.

And today some 14.6 million children live in poverty-90 percent of whom live in one-parent homes.

As I was flipping the pages trying to find page 123, curiosity and a certain kind of excitement coursed through me. I wondered what would be on page 123. Earlier in the day, I had sent out an email with a link to this book on google, and in that email, I highlighted the chapter that talks about the hectic lifestyle of a two income family.

So it's amazing that this meme 'chose' this particular issue from this book. I grew up in a one income household, but then again, we were blessed with wealth, so there was no issue of needing two incomes to survive. Right now, there is also no issue of needing two incomes to survive, even though we can be categorized as being under the poverty line here in the States. Alhamdulillah, we survive. As for lifestyle, I guess, you make do with what you have. If we were to go back home and live in Kuala Lumpur, I honestly don't know what I would do, as there would be so many outside pressure to live a certain lifestyle - something akin to a rat race, as my aunt once advised,

"Stay there, you don't need to come back here. It's a rat race here."

It is true, I have to say. At least, where we are now in the community, no one cares what car we drive, what brand shoes we wear and whether we have matching sets of plates or not. I have feared and still fear entering that stage of our life. I guess you could say it's the fear of the unknown. We have lived the lifestyle of students for 11 years, and we don't have matching plates nor have we had teacups until very recently.

Hubby cringed every time we had to serve guests tea in tall glasses or foam paper cups, and I do believe he feels it a great burden to earn more. I really don't care, well maybe deep down I do (I just don't realize it), but I try not to care too much because I know that with increasing wealth, there also comes increasing tests. I had kind of wished that we could live the life of students forever, but I know that is unrealistic with increasing number of children. And now, we are job hunting. Who knows where we will end up in a few months. In Abdulbary's lecture, he said,

"When you ask for wealth, don't just ask for wealth, but ask for wealth that is blessed by Allah."

So,

"Oh, Allah, You are the Provider, and all Provision come from You. Please place us in a place and environment where we will be surrounded by people who will guide us to the truth and keep us on that path, and are good influence on our children so they can grow up to be those whom you bless with knowledge and wisdom. Oh Allah, please bestow on us wealth that is blessed by You. Ameen."



I tag makcik, finie, afafita, fauz, and Elsa.