I carefully plan my meals and make sure I'm within my limits every day. Unless, of course, I forget my frakking lunch sack at home .... which I did today. No worries, I can improvise. Jack in the Box is, shockingly, permitted as long as you forego all breaded products (including buns), potato anything, and katsup (who the hell knew tomatoes were loaded with sugar....eff me). So when I give up from starvation and head to JITB for breakfast I'm thinking, "Fine. Meat and eggs sans bun just means I can't stuff it down my throat driving back to the office."
OH. Important side note. The area in which I work can be accurately described as "The 'Hood". Police activity with full lights and sirens is the norm. If I don't hear an hovering police helicopter at a minimum of once a month I worry that the thugs and drug dealers have gone soft. I don't fear for my safety (I'm packing) but it is what it is and I am quite cautious at all times.
I pull through the drive thru at JITB....order my sausagey-eggy concoction that I plan to rip apart on a plate when I get back to my desk...and as I complete my order I see a bedraggled, filthy human standing by the drive thru line.....two small objects in his hands. I watch the 2 patrons before me wave him off.
My initial response is to push the button, roll up my window, and just ignore. But something tells me no. I look at this man; he holds a package of double A batteries in one hand....and a tiny pocket Bible in the other. He explains that he is a drug addict trying to reform and could I help him and buy batteries from him. I never have more than $20 in cash on me. Ever. And nearly never coins. Today I have exactly $0.62 in the cup holder in the car and zero cashola. I grab the coins, extend them to this man and say, "Sorry, hon. This is all I can give you. You can keep the batteries."
He smiles, takes the change and says, "Miss. Do you have any water?" I'm floored. I say, "No, I'm sorry. I don't." Very kindly he says, "Thank you for your help."
When I got to the window to get my order I am watching others behind me ignore him. I say to the young man working the window, "I need a large cup of water and another breakfast sandwich please." I pay for the items and pull around the building. His back is now to me and I roll down my window and say, "Here, sir!" I give him the food and glass of water and say, "Have a good breakfast! I'm hungry, too!" He takes the cup and bag and looks at me and say, "Oh, miss. Thank you so much." And behind me a woman whips into the parking lot and immediately starts honking at me to move out of the way. She was honking before she came to a stop behind me.
Am I a sucker for feeding the "reformed drug addict"? Maybe. Is the $3 extra I spent on breakfast going to redeem me or save my soul? Probably not. But sometimes the fellowship of mankind must be recognized. He was still thanking me repeatedly as I drove off. I'm not particularly religious. I don't spend a lot of time in church nor reading the Bible yet the verse below somehow leapt to mind. Was he an angel? Nope. Probably not. The woman dying to get to the frigging drive thru window was clearly not. Am I? Nope. Not a chance.
I'm at peace with that.
"Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."Hebrews 13:1-2
Great post. Wish more people would realise these truths.
ReplyDelete"We" are firm believers of the philosophy that you give where you can, without judgement. I hear people say all the time, 'oh they will buy alcohol etc'. Well you know what, if that person has to stand in the scorching heat all day, maybe without a bed to sleep in or even water to drink or food to eat, who am I to judge! There but for the grace of God, go I, as is written.
Give where you can, when you can, you never know what the tiniest gesture can do, how that can change a persons day or even their life. Don't give with judgement, or for recognition, give because it is the decent thing to do. Climbing off my soap box now lol.
Thanks for posting this!
"I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: "What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me." ~ Joseph Addison
She's a bitch.
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