CITY STREET CORNER WOMAN MENDICANT

I had an interesting experience about three or four weeks ago.  I was returning home from running an errand for Belle.  It took me to the market place of the city.  On the way home, I came to an intersection where there was a woman begging for money.  Lately we have taken to keeping a dollar in the coffee cup holder area for just such a situation.  We got to doing that because we came to the conclusion that it was the thing to do.  We talked about it a little bit before we finally came to the decision that it was an eleemosynary action that we should do for the good of the world.  Across the length of time and a few hundred words of criss-cross discussion we had finally decided that the logic was there.  It went something like this.  We have nothing.  Or we think that we have nothing.  But, in the long run, we have to admit that our "nothing" is more than what other people's "nothing" might or might not be.  Given all of that, we had to come to the rock bottom truth.  Since we have nothing, if we give someone something from our nothing we have nothing to lose because we have nothing to begin with.  So we decided that when we have a paper dollar in our possession, we will leave it in the car for those who may have less nothing that we do.  It works.  BUT...

Like I said, not too long ago I had something happen to me that really tweaked my nothingness into quite a tremble.  Like I said, I was returning from running an errand, listening to the radio and had to come to a stop at the corner.  There was a woman [I was going to say "lady", but I'm taking some revenge.  Forgive me, Lord.] She had the usual sign that said something that didn't matter to me.  I just bent over, picked up the dollar and gave it to her.  She thanked me in nice tones and proceeded to tell me that it was her first dollar in over three hours.  I commiserated gently and said whatever banality came to mind and smiled, stifling a smirk.  I didn't know why she was getting under my skin.  That being said, she then turned toward a man whom I had not noticed.  He was standing on the corner to my right, directly across the street from her.  She started to tell him about the plight of not having a very good day and wondering how she was going to feed her dog when she got to be with him for the evening.  Let me tell you something.  There is a woman walking the face of the earth who has been spared her life thanks to the providential glow of green from a traffic signal.  Now you know, as do I,  what was crawling under my skin.  Did I feel it before she said that?  Naw.  Couldn't be.  I am not much of an ESP guy, so that must not be it.  But boy, talk about a head-shaking moment.  Those of you who read me, know my feelings about this stuff.  Phew.

I got home and told the story.  It took a lot of ice water in the shower to get me back down to earth.  Belle didn't even ask for the dollar back.  She just said something like, "Well, we don't have anything anyway, so now we know that the woman has the "nothing" that we had, so she doesn't have anything, now, does she?"  Boys and girls, every now and then, in moments like that, I know that it is a good thing that I have her for my wife.   

Anyway, I hope the dog enjoyed it.  It's a good thing that I don't frequent that place very much.  By the time I go by there again, maybe it will be the dog holding the sign looking for something to be able to help her.  I hope so.