But that corny "pay it forward" speaks to me today.
This morning I ran into a guy in my building who offered to clean snow off my car in the parking lot. Then a friend picked up a couple items at the grocery so I wouldn't need to forge out in the snow and cold.
I scootered down to my car just now to put some stuff away. Someone approached me in the parking lot, a fairly common occurrence in my downtown neighborhood. Sob story, thought I.
It was a teen who was crying. She said she and her daughter had a flat tire and no money to fix it. I had only $5 in my wallet, which I gave her. She thanked me and walked off in the cold, still crying. She seemed determined to play the crappy hand fate dealt her tonight.
Now I worry that she'll freeze (it's near dark and 3 degrees), or she'll fall in the snow and ice, or that she can't gather enough money for the tire. I could have at least given her my knit hat; she was bare-headed. I wish I had told her where the nearest homeless shelter is. But I'm ashamed to say I don't even know.
Anyway. Rambling to say that sometimes it doesn't matter what a person intends to do with whatever pittance you can give them. If you can ease their pain, do it.
Click the post title and play cut #10. Yeah, it's sappy. Sometimes sappy lets us know we're living.
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