What it’s like to be unemployed
continued from page 3

better learn.

I don’t know how other jobseekers feel, but I am not shy about the fact I am unemployed. Nor am I ashamed. I want to find a job. I will have one. Regardless of my life’s recent downturn, I know that I will again have a full-time job.

There is no other option. Unless I count the one I saw again today.

The battered old man with the cardboard sign stood back straight against the sign at the three-way stop outside Super WalMart. He was there yesterday, too. With the same sign, a perfect example of simplicity in advertising: WILL WORK.

I could not imagine some soccer mom on the way to WalMart, stopping to hire the grizzled, unshaven man to weed the garden or paint the front porch, and saying sure, just hop on into the mini-van with the kids.

But the reality of joblessness is just a few bad choices away for anybody. It helps no one to deny the spark of divinity we should see in each one of us, no matter our physical condition.

Rick Wade is a central Illinois freelance writer and a former editor and reporter for weekly and daily newspapers in Illinois. He is now a resident of Jacksonville, where he lives with his wife, father-in-law, two dogs and a cat. This article first appeared in The Source, a weekly newspaper in Jacksonville.