Traffic light

 

You are in the passenger seat of your SUV, on the way to Costco where you know you'll spend hundreds of dollars on things like cheese sticks, chicken breasts, and corn chips.

You see her on the side of the road, holding a sign that says she has two young daughters. There is something scrawled about an ex-husband, but you can't make it out. She is pregnant. Her hair has been bleached white and she wipes at tears that course down her cheeks.

The light turns green and your husband accelerates.

Just another down and out person on Aurora. Another suffering face that your brain makes room for but that your life does not.

You think about her all day. You leave the house by yourself later and consider trying to find her. You want to give her a twenty. You won't miss it.

But then you remember the last time you did that, and the disappointment that spread through you like black grape juice sullying a white dishcloth, the stain growing and growing until it was the size of a smashed grapefruit.

Why do you get to have so much?

Comments

[kcinnova]

It's a tough one, isn't it? There was a lot of poverty, almost literally on every corner, when we lived in El Paso. Sometimes I gave money, sometimes I gave food, and sometimes I consoled myself with the knowledge that our church supported a food pantry, a battered women's shelter, and a homeless center.

[m]

Some of it is the luck of the draw and a lot of it is that you and your ancestors made different choices. Give when you can and know your limits.

[Meredith]

I gave a twenty to someone in Boston once who was in a car, said they were out of gas (which they were) and that they needed to get back to the Cape. It was all I had in my wallet.

Instead of stopping at the next gas station a half a block away, I watched them whip around the corner and up the street.

I felt like a fool and haven't given a penny on the street to anyone since.

[Rachael]

I try to give money when I can... I give people the benefit of the doubt. Sure, maybe they are lying. BUT, what if they're not and they really need help? What if that was me? My husband and I and our son came close a little over a year ago, we couldn't afford rent and luckily had a family home to move into. If we hadn't I don't know what would have happened.