Monday, July 20, 2009

Charity Never Faileth and Love is a Battlefield

So I'm in the parking lot at Sam's Club with a basketful of stuff, right next to my car, when a guy starts talking to me out of the blue, and he's standing right at the other end of my basket. After a second or two, I realize he has some kind of emotional or physical difficulty, and he's asking me for money. He has two dollars crumpled up in his hands. He's muttering something about helping out a stranded person.

I open my door and pull out my planner to see what cash I have for his "bus fare to Salt Lake" which costs $5. He says, "You look like Pat Benatar." I reply, "Hmmm, she's old now. ok."

I hand him a 5 and he mumbles something about Steve Perry and some other thing. Then he quickly noticed that I did not give him the $20 bill that was in my see-through planner pouch. And he says, "More money??" I say, "No, 5 is good. That's what you said you needed for the bus." Then he mumbles something else about Pat Benatar. I reply, "Sorry? I can't understand you very well." And he sticks out his tongue at me and quickly ambles away!

I heard him yelling something to another customer 100 feet away who was putting her groceries in her car. And then he continued west out of the lot.

It was weird. I figure, you know, try not to judge, do something nice, get a warm fuzzy. NOPE. No warm fuzzy. More of a sense of frustration and just plain weirdness. Oh well.

2 comments:

Wendy said...

You are a better person than I am. I never give people money. Well, that is not true. I usually give the subway performers in Paris money. For some reason I am nore generous in France! You are good person and you earned some blessings in heaven.

Marcy in TX said...

i agree. I've had a similar experience, misplaced generosity or feelings of let down after trying to do the right thing... Don't let it get you down. Like Wendy said - you're getting "blessings in heaven".