Friday, April 25, 2008

Forgetfully Spoiled

I forgot to mention Earth Day (April 22). But, I'm looking into this.

A woman stopped by the church office for the second time. She needs help. She hasn't eaten today. She was hoping we had some food vouchers. We didn't. I didn't even have any cash to give her. After she left, I remembered I had a granola bar in my purse, but she was already gone.

"It's such a different life." I said it aloud because her concerns are so blatantly different from mine and it really struck me as I walked back to my office where I work and get a paycheck every month. And I saw the near empty peach chai tea latte cup waiting to be finished and it all looked different.

My To Do List:

1) Get car washed.
2) Prepare for tomorrow's photo shoot.
3) Finish decorating room.


Her To Do List:

1) Find a way to eat.
2) Find money to pay her hotel room.


And then I wonder at myself.

1 comments:

seijitsu said...

Hey, you looked at that link; that's cool. =)

When I was at Oxford, there was a homeless woman I often passed on the street leading to the one my flat was on. I stopped to give her change whenever I had it, but once I had a Starbucks chai in my hand, and I just it to her too. I think I bought her one another time after that. Sometimes it just works out that you have something at the right time that you can give away. Sometimes you forget you have it and feel bad afterward. Sometimes you have it but you don't want to give it away because you wanted it for yourself... I was on the subway a few months ago with an Ensure health drink shake thing I got free from someone at church in my bag and as they often do, a homeless guy walked through the car asking for money or food. I didn't give him the can cuz I was (for me) super poor at the time and had been really looking forward to using it as a free meal instead of the things I'd been eating like partly-rotten leftover rice or peanut butter/jelly sandwiches. But maybe that was selfish of me to keep it for myself. I saw one person hand the guy a 1/3 full bottled water. I didn't know if it was mean of the person to give that or if it was nice.
We need to try to think ahead more. I feel bad when I know I have change but it's in my wallet so I wouldn't have time to get it out before the homeless person passes me or before I pass them. Sometimes I wrap change into plastic wrap bundles and put them in the outside pocket of my purse so I can easily hand it to someone. But I don't do it enough. Maybe I shouldn't spend any of my change at restaurants so I can give more of it away.