Dear Lester:

You wrote: ” I feel intimidated by other people’s economic status.”

You are intimidated, that is afraid to be … found out by the other people as one less than them, less worthy.
Afraid that other people will find out you have less money than they do and as they do, they will reject you? Make fun of you?

In the volleyball group of people, each other person is afraid of something: some are intimidated by others’ better looking bodies and faces; others are intimidated by others’ formal education; others are intimidated by others’ marital status and so forth.

Some don’t look intimidated but then you too don’t always look intimidated. Yet, as it says in a poem I like:
“Every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.”

Fear is a very powerful emotion, the most powerful of all. Your fear is stuck on financial status. Another’s fear is stuck on him being bald while others have hair, and so on and so on.

Every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

Regarding your financial status, if I was in the volleyball group I would be okay with you taking a bus (I have taken buses many times), and I would be okay with you not being able to go to IHOP. In fact I wouldn’t go either. Instead I would suggest you and I make pancakes together- way healthier than IHOP. I would introduce you to my favorite pancake topping: a mix of tahini and maple syrup- delightful!!!

anita