Sunday, July 21, 2013

Charity Begins in Your Own Back Pocket

Earlier this evening I stopped by the store to get something to drink. There was a man out front that hit me with the usual sob story. He had just lost his job. He was from out of town and had no family out here that could help him. He was entering some sort of homeless assistance program in the next few days, but was trying to raise up enough cash to get himself a cheap place to stay for the next couple of days.

You hear stories all the time about the guy that stands on the street corner with the "will work for food" sign and at the end of the day gets into his cadillac or bmw and drives home. I have never seen that happen myself, and I think that it a story that people tell themselves in order to make it easy to be heartless. Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes it is their fault, other times it is a result of mental illness or other factors less in their control.

Either way I would rather part with the $20 in my wallet a couple of times a year, and just hope that I am really helping someone out than be an closed off emotionally devoid asshole. Read the book. You know what Dad says about helping those that are less fortunate.

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