And who won the battle.
One of my best friends had written a recent post on his blog about
a sweet story about how we interact with homeless people on the subways and how acknowledging a stranger is a gift worth more than any coin.
On
Friday I was on the subway to this particular friend's "spinning class birthday party". I didn't know these even existed, and this should tell you
just how much I love this boy to do an hour of crazy cardio in his honor. I
mean where are the gluten free cupcakes?? Don't worry we had one later
to make up for the torture I mean, fierce workout, after which I had to
admit was a pretty amazing experience.
His story immediately came to mind on my way to the spinning party as two homeless men entered the train on
opposite ends of the car. Now we get a lot of homeless in NYC but to
have two on one car is truly special. Or scary. They entered both at
once and started their monologues, overlapping each other:
"Good
afternoon ladies and gentlemen if you could...I never thought I would
be here...anything you can spare a nickel a...I'm 75 years old and hungry..."
Always sad and the natural reaction is to keep your head down and ignore because it happens so often and I mean we can't just give a coin to EVERY one of them can we? And who knows, they might just be taking that money to buy drugs right? (justify, justify...) Well instead as I thought of the gift of acknowledgement watched the scene intensely. I
started to wonder who was going to win over the audience when surprisingly I hear Homeless #1 belt out to Homeless #2-
"Brother do you need some of my food?"
"Brother do you need some of my food?"
I was so moved by this! One person with so little giving to another with even less!
Homeless #2 replies:
"NAH I don't want that crap I don't know where it's been!!"
Oh
my gosh. I started laughing and the whole exchange made me reach into
my bag and literally scoop out the massive amount of change I carry with
me every day and hand it over to...
drum roll please...
drum roll please...
Homeless #1
As
much as I appreciate humor, Homeless man #1 had such a sense of generosity I just HAD to be part of his pay it forward happening.
And what do you know?
My bag was...LIGHTER. By unloading my change, a weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders. :)
gorgeously said!
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean "gorgous-ly" said? ;) Thank you my bird. I have some synchronicity to tell you about by the way.
DeleteSo many things I love about this story. I can easily picture the whole thing. Only wish I was riding next to you on the subway car like the old days.
ReplyDeleteRemember the time I was standing on the platform listening to "Help From my Friends" all lonely and I looked up and there you were riding past in the car right in front of me? I jumped on that 1 train so fast and we rode all the way back to 46-15 30th Avenue together holding hands. :) Not without stopping for donuts first though.
Delete