Sunday, August 3, 2014

Can you afford it?

So today the husband, the kid, and I went down stateside to hang out and do a bit of shopping.  Before we started our shopping marathon, we decided to stop for lunch at Taco Time.  Through a miscommunication, we wound up getting two extra tacos that none of us ended up having.  We saved the tacos, figuring we could eat it later, or better yet, give it to someone who's hungry. 

We went shopping at Ross for an hour or so, and then on our way back to the car, I notice a guy sitting in the parking lot under the blazing hot sun. I've seen him there before, and I've given him food each time I've seen him, since we always seem to have leftovers from some restaurant or another.  Today was no exception. 

Here's the crazy part: When I gave him the food, his reaction was, "Are you sure you can afford this? Thank you!  Are you sure?"  This guy, a Navy vet (according to his sign), is hungry, homeless, sitting under the blazing sun, and his primary concern was making sure *I* wasn't going to go hungry or put myself out by giving him this food.  Let's be real here - if I didn't give this guy our food, I was going to turf it.  And this guy was worried... for *me*.  After I just spent $70 on clothes that I didn't *really* need.   I was so moved I started to cry. 

We often forget how incredibly rich we are.  We take our three squares a day, our overabundance of snacks, our drinks at the bar, all of that stuff for granted.  We gorge ourselves on Ben and Jerry's and then complain... we complain about how full we are!  We whine about being fat.  We joke about how this bottle of wine is going to cost us a couple of hours at the gym.  Then when some person who's obviously living on the streets has the temerity to ask us for the spare change in our pockets so they can get something to eat, we lie that we don't have any.  Or that we can't spare any. 

This is a lie.  Most of us probably don't have the resources to do what FouseyTubeMagicofRahat, or Sofia's Angels do.  But that doesn't mean we can't do something.

I'm going to try to do something.







(PS: Sorry if the post ended somewhat abruptly.  It started to sound a bit preachy.  I didn't like that, and it's late.  So I ended it where I did.)