Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Understanding Compassion

The other day I came across a homeless man begging for money. He was young, sturdy, but poor, and dirty. From one to another he asked, he begged, and was was thrown a few quarters, a few dimes and a couple dollars here and there. He then comes across this woman, this woman asks him "why are you not working?". She then goes on to tell him that he is not contributing to society and ranting and raving words that wouldn't even exist in a book of curses...she could've just said "no" and moved on. The man left......
The other day I came across a homeless man. He was older, yet sturdy, poor and dirty. He did not ask for money, instead he lays in the grass on an abandoned lot. He might have begged for money and thrown a few dollars here and there...but I can't say that for sure. He slept in front of a Chinese restaurant. A business man, well dressed, and nicely groomed goes to this restaurant and sees this older homeless man. Instead of ignoring, or throwing him a couple o' bucks, the man takes this homeless man to the restaurant and asks him "what would you like to eat".. The people around the restaurant glared; the owners upset and the customers scared. Ignoring the rest of the world, the homeless man chooses his meal, and the business man chose his. The homeless man left...said "thank you you done a lot for me" and ate his meal on the abandoned lot....the business man ate in the restaurant.

Yes, there will be stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination but does that give other humans rights to point fingers and put blame on others? Does it help? and would it fix the dilemma?
Although it would be nice to have less homeless rates for all humanity there will always be people who fall on hard times. People go through difficult circumstances which make it hard to get back on track. Ask yourself is it easy to find jobs when you look dirty with no place to bathe? Is it easy to get a job when you have no previous experience? it's not to say you must buy a meal for every homeless person but it also does not mean one must make assumptions that one is a lazy booze drinking individual. Have some compassion, help others if possible, and understand the situation prior to judgment. We are all humans in this spinning wonder world, not anything greater nor anything less.