Hi folks. Sorry it's been awhile...this semester has been way way way more work than I was expecting, and yet I never seem to get anything done. Strange.
Anyway, yesterday I had one of those experiences that you don't necessarily think much of at the time but then it keeps coming back to you and won't leave you alone. I was walking down the street in Dinkytown on the way to school, when a woman approached me and asked for a quarter for the bus. She was wearing shoes with no socks, and clearly isn't doing too well financially. I gave her a dollar, not having any change, and thought I'd done my good deed for the day (which rarely gets done, unfortunately) and went on. I was feeling not terribly well, hadn't slept much, and hadn't had breakfast, so I felt the need for a greasy breakfast sandwich and coffee, and stopped into McDonald's. As I was waiting for my order to come up, the woman who had asked me for a quarter came in and asked for a hamburger. It being 8 in the morning, they only had the breakfast menu, so no dollar menu hamburgers. At this point my food came and I left. As I was walking away, I thought I heard her ask if they had anything for a dollar. I kept walking.
I could easily have given her another dollar, or bought her breakfast with my debit card. But I just walked away, pretending that I hadn't seen her or realized that she'd asked for a quarter so she could eat, partly because I didn't want to embarrass her by offering to buy her breakfast. And maybe that was the best thing to do. Maybe a dollar is enough to give a person. If I were the person I wish I were, I would have bought her pancakes and a coffee and hashbrowns and whatever else she wanted, and sat down to eat with her. But I didn't. I guess that's just the way it goes.
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