I’m not particularly sure why I’ve expressed an affinity for social causes lately.
Last week there was this annoying construction project on
As she came closer I noticed that she was struggling to walk with an old cane and that there was some plastic thing sticking out of her arm. She told me that her car broke down and she needed to get to chemotherapy. I asked her where she needed to go, which she apparently mistook for an invitation into my vehicle. I said that I couldn’t take her and handed her some cash. I told her that there was store on the corner where she could buy bus tokens, but to do whatever she needed to do with the money.
What is it in me that allowed me to completely trust this woman?
Last month my uncle passed away from lymph node cancer. I remember seeing the portal in his arm. This woman had two of them. I couldn’t imagine someone making that up.
I was trying to draw a parallel between this experience and the public outpouring of support for victims of hurricane Katrina.
People have no problem donating a dollar to these people in need because their misfortune is the result of a natural disaster. Simply put, it isn’t their fault.
Does this mean that they are any more or less in need that the woman I encountered on the street? I suppose it’s all a matter of perception.
I drove off in my car, picked up the rent checks and went to Whole Foods to get some lunch, but I couldn’t get the woman off of my mind. It was a warm day so I grabbed an extra bottle of water, hopped in my car and headed back there for her. Sadly, there was a part of me that suspected she would still be there, but she wasn’t…and that made me smile. Even if she was it wouldn’t have mattered much to me. She obviously needed something.
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
- William Shakespeare
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