What I am about to tell you all is an incident that happened recently. I was walking back from one of my local Starbucks with a friend of mine having coffee as I usually do with my friends in the morning. As I am walking back to my car, a lady approaches my friend and me and asked if she could bother us for a minute. Please note, I didn’t think or feel she was bothering my me or my friend. I thought she was going to ask for directions.
The lady breaks down in tears and says she’s embarrassed for what she’s about to do next. She asks us for spare change as she’s struggling to feed herself and her kids. She even went as far as to tell me that she went to the local church and asked for help and all they gave her was rice and noodles. She said that wasn’t enough food for her kids.
Now as I am a parent and remember a similar incident when I was a kid with my Dad. I remember what my Dad did and without missing a beat my Dad gave a lady in need to feed her kids money. So I reached for my wallet and gave her $10, as that was really all I had at the time in my wallet. The lady continued to cry and thanked me for my kindness, but all I could think about was her and the kids.
The point of this short article is to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with helping someone in need. I remember my Dad telling me that when I was a kid when I asked why he did what he did. I think that’s one of the problems we face in America, people forgetting to help others when they are in need. Yes there can be scam artists out there and yes I could’ve been suckered into giving her money she really doesn’t need. But I did my part as a human being and with that I can take the lesson I learned from my Dad to one-day pass to my own kids.
We need more people knowing and understanding that there is nothing wrong in helping our fellow (hu)man…it doesn’t pay to be greedy or mean to someone. ‘Pay it Forward’ everyone…the moment and gesture in helping someone will go a long way. R. Jibus
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