After work today--2 clients and time spent on advertising--I stopped at the gas station. There was a man in a sweatsuit pushing a grocery cart outside the station. I was dressed in business pants, wearing a white button-down shirt with tie and had my cell phone clipped to my belt.
"Please don't ask me for money," I thought. I may look wealthy, but that doesn't reveal the truth that I'm scraping together each penny right now.
Then I thought, "Perhaps I'm making the same judgment in reverse. Maybe his appearance doesn't reveal the truth either and he is very wealthy."
He didn't ask for money. I appreciated the reminder not to judge folks by how they look.
3 comments:
No, things are not always as they appear:
Story #1: My father owned a business where I grew up in NY. Every day, when he opened his biz, he would see what appeared to be a homeless man on the corner of the same block. My father had always closed shop b-4 the man would vacate. One day, Dad was finishing up business late. When he had departed the building for the day, he noticed that a limosine had picked up the man. After investigation on my father's behalf, it had turned out that the man was a millionaire. He was just so bored to tears with his own life, that he had elected to sit on a street corner all day in order to observe others. Perhaps this had made his life more interesting.
Story #2: When I had lived in Ft. Lauderdale, I had always observed many, appearing to be homeless people that dwelled the "off-ramps" to highway exits. They always held signs asking for $. Needless to say, lots of Southern Floridians had $ to gladly give them. Well, one evening, I was watching the evening news. The news team decided to make a brave speculation, and interview some of these supposed "homeless" people. As fate would have it, on the average, each of these individuals grossed approximately $70K annually...TAX FREE!!
Quite disgusting, NO?
Needless to say, as generous a person as I am, I never give any $ to a seemingly homeless person. If I am in San Fran, and I see a talented starving artist trying to earn $, by playing the violin outside of a subway station, then, yes, I will gladly contribute. Otherwise, Darwin's theory prevails.
Cheers!
J.
i usually throw rocks in case the begger is really a rich person in disguise. you can never be too careful. Imagine giving a quarter to a rich person. They would probably buy stocks with it and turn it into fifty cents.
lol, anonymous! (from another anonymous)
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