The LC, take two
OK, I know it's been a while since I wrote anything here. I stopped updating when I went to Greece this summer, and after I got back, I was busy finding a job, moving and learning how to do my job. Now that I've got all that pretty well in hand, I figured it was time to revive the LC.I figure a good place to start is with my new home, Lumberton, North Carolina. It's not a big town, but has its share of problems I used to associate with big cities. Poverty, crime, drugs, smelly people, the whole nine yards. Apparently the place used to be a textile town, but that industry has been in decline for some time. Ten years ago, things were really bad. Now the town is making a resurgence with the service industry and businesses springing up around the exits off I-95 which runs through the heart of town.
Since Ive been here, I've twice had people knock on my apartment door to ask for money. A third guy knocked on my door one day asking for an Amanda. I said no such person lived here, and hadn't for a while. The previous tenant was named Jamie (I still get her mail). I wasnt sure if the guy was confused, looking for a girlfriend who lived here years ago, or just wanted to see if someone was home before he robbed the place. None would surprise me.
A couple weeks ago, I walked down to Johnny's hot dogs, a restaurant of sorts run out of a trailer. It's a local favorite and you can buy a chili dog for $1.10 or smoked sausage (my personal favorite) for $1.30. I had gotten my usual two sausages and was sitting on a bench digging in when a homeless man rode up to me on a bicycle. He very politely asked if he could have some money to get a hot dog. I handed the guy $2, which he put in the pocket of his Charlotte Hornets jacket (they havent been the Charlotte Hornets for 3 or 4 years, and the jacket looked at least 10 years old) and rode off in the opposite direction of Johnny and his hot dogs.
Another guy walked into the newsroom one Saturday when I was working alone. I usually lock the door if its after hours, but hadn't on this day. First he asked if anyone had ordered a pizza. I said no. Then he asked if he could use the phone. I said I wasn't supposed to let non-employees in through the back door (as a large sign clearly stated) and that the office was closed. Then he said he had been in a fight with his family and was going to church to get through it and asked for $10. I'm not sure what $10 had to do with going to church, and I doubt his problems with his family could be solved by a piece of paper with Alexander Hamilton's picture on it.
These things have gotten me thinking (imagine that). The Bible's pretty clear about how we should treat strangers. The whole "what you did for the least of these, you did for Me" concept. JC didn't go around saying "you should help those less fortunate if they dont frighten you and youre sure they wont use the money for crack." That much I'm pretty confident about. But you can't just empty your wallet to everybody who walks along. What's a guy to do? I dont really know. I have no answer. You weren't expecting me to were you? Well, you should know better.
Maybe I can find some happy medium where I help some people but don't have to give up my own house. Maybe if I go do missionary work for a year I'll feel like I've made enough of a difference to not feel guilty about things. These thoughts bring me around to the saints and martyrs, examples of people who literally gave everything to help others. Not just the Mother Theresas (although she was pretty amazing). I'm thinking of the countless other missionaries, priests and others who gave up big chunks of their life in service. Sometimes I wonder if I could be like them. I think not though. I'm mostly motivated by guilt at this point, and that will only take you so far.
posted by Dennis @ 6:53 PM
2 Comments:
mmmmmm good entry Dennis. I often wish/pray that I helped people out of compassion, not out of a guilty conscience. And well, most of the time I don't help people at all.
(Sometimes I'll offer to buy someone like that a sandwich or whatever. They usually turn it down. And then I get angry.)
I believe there are many different ways to help someone. Money isn't the answer to all life's problems. For example, my dad has a friend named Jimmy. He used to have a repair shop downtown that turned quite the little profit. However, recently he's found that he has a taste for gambling, whores, and crack. (Yes - all this in Florence) So his shop went broke, his family disowned him, and he moved into a homeless shelter. Then he turned up on our doorstep asking for money. Of course, my dad wanted to help and gave him $40. Two days later, looking like he had been run over, Jimmy returns and asks for more. Did that money do any good? Not that I can see. Now my dad is considering calling the cops on him so he'll have a place to detox and maybe some motivation to get clean. Give someone the means to help or harm themselves and they will usually do the latter. (ie - giving human beings free will - look what we do with that.) Instead of giving away help (for them to to with it what they may), you can just do something helpful. If you do it right, the person being helped will never know. No one will know. Thats the point. Its not for glory or to ease an aching conscience, its to make other people's lives better. But as humans, we're all selfish and want to make our lives better and fill our extra rooms with crap we don't need and make other people admire us. So I guess what I'm trying to say in this crazy long comment is that all we can do is try to overcome our condition and help others in our own round-about ways. Kinda like Pay It Forward. Only without Kevin Spacey.
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