Learning sympathy... the hard way

OK, so I hate it when people ask me for money. To be fair it never used to bother me and in fact I gave them money pretty often, but then I moved to a bigger city with a large population of grifters. Let's call them grifters because most of them are not homeless and they are all very organized and their methods are dishonest (for example they ask you to sign a "petition" saying that you support schools for kids with handicaps and then try to get you to give them money, or once a guy "found" a ring on the ground and gave it to me cause it didn't fit him... then he wanted money). To make things worse these people are always pushy, and if you do give them money often times they will be upset that you didn't give them more. In short, people asking for money is now one of my least favorite things about the human experience.

However, one day while I was in Morroco, I decided to try being a beggar for a while. My motivation was simple, I wanted to get out of Morroco. I was two dollars short of a train ride to the the airport so I made a sign on some cardboard and sat myself down outside the train station. I thought it was going to be a sympathy building experience, that I would better understand our homeless friends, but within half an hour an old man gave me fifty cents and a young woman by the name of Yasmine had come a long and offered to pay for my entire train ticket (at this point I've made somewhere around five USD in cash and goods during a period of about thirty minutes, giving me a rough average of ten USD an hour... in Morrocco, where ten USD an hour is easily higher income than 80% of the rest of the nation). We shared a fifteen minute conversation while we road the train to where I could make my connection to get to the airport, during which time she fed me and gave me some extra change and then suggested we exchange info in case I ever came back to Morocco and I wanted a place to stay in Casa Blanca. It was too easy. It built no sympathy whatsoever.

That is until today. Months after my trip Yasmine and I had the following conversation through Facebook chat:

Yasmine:

hello

Me:

hi

Yasmine:

how are u to day

Me:

not great

hard day

Yasmine:

ok

i miss u so mutch

END CONVERSATION.

Suddenly all the random phone calls from Morocco make sense. You know the ones where your phone rings and you the number has the country code +212 and you answer and then someone is trying to speak to you in Arabic and you don't understand so they start speaking French and you still can't really understand what they're saying and then they hang up. Wait, you don't get those? Probably because you never gave your number to a Yasmine in Morocco because you felt obligated after she had fed you and bought you a train ticket.

But the important thing is that I learned that had never occurred to me. Homeless people are putting themselves out there everyday, out into a world that is a hell of a lot crazier than they are. Now I'm not saying we should go so far as to admire the courage that must take, but I am suggesting that we could all give them a little more sympathy. I know I will.

Spam

Here is an email I received recently

Dear Sir/Ma,

I am the only Daughter of my late parents Mr.and Mrs. Linus. My father was a highly reputable business magnet who operated in the capital of cote D' Ivoire during his days. It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips abroad year 12th Febuary 2004.Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been masterminded by an uncle of his who travelled with him at that time. But God knows the truth! My mother died when I was just 6 years old and since then my father took me so special.

Before his death on Febuary 12 2004 he called the secretary who accompanied him to the hospital and told him that he has the sum of fifteen million, seven hundred thousand United State Dollar (USD$15.700,000)left in a box called consignment in one of the leading Security company in Africa. He further told him deposit that he deposited the money with my name, and finally issued a written instruction to his lawyer who he said is in possession of all the
necessary but legal documents to this fund and the bank. I am just a university undergraduate and really don't know what to do now. And also I am a deaf girl.

I need urgent assistant were this box funds will be delivered to you then you will deposit the whole money into your bank account after retriving the box money from the security company and after the transaction I will come and live with .This is because I have suffered alot of set backs as a result of incessant political crisis here in Cote d' Ivoire. The death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life and i wished to invested under your care please. I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistant in this regards.

Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded. Now permit me to
ask this few questions:-
{1} Can you honestly help me .
{2} Can I completely trust ? .
{3}What percentage of the total amount in question will be good for
you after the money is in your account while i finalies my education?.

Kindly get back to me if you are interesting for allow me investing this funds to your company. I am looking forward to hear from you. I need your failtful assistant, please read this mail and get back to me immediately.I decided to investing the whole money into your company.

Please contact me on this my second emai: ritalinus@hotmail.fr

Thank you once again.

Yours Deafuly,
Miss Rita Linus

This is my reply

Dear Deaf Girl,

I could possibly be sorry for your predicament. Please send a head shot and at least 2 full body shots from different angles so that I can determine whether or not I care.

- Just S. Guy

... Let's just say I am frugal

So right now i am just killing time until 7 PM. That is when I am going to a free dinner. I could go do something else right now like watch a movie, read a book, write a story, or fix my own dinner, but instead I am writing this blog and checking the clock in the lower right hand of the computer screen every two minutes to see the progress of time. In case you were wondering it is moving slowly. Why am I doing this? Because I am going to get a free meal. It is surprising the lengths I would go to in order to get a free meal. I wonder just how much of my life has been spent planning around free meals. I love getting things for free. Is there anything better that free stuff? I enjoy hand-me-downs because I can look at other people and say "They had to pay for those clothes and I didn't... Losers."

Yes interesting that getting things for free makes me feel like I am better than other people. I used to go to the deli right before they closed and sometimes they would give me all of the food that they didn't sell during the day. It was awesome. I also pulled the same trick at the gas station near my house, they would give me all their day-old doughnuts. I think it is pretty safe to say that getting things for free is one of my favorite things in the world. I have often thought that I was genetically engineered to be a bum. So while I am feeling rather bored right now waiting for 7 o'clock to finally roll around, I know that it will be worth it to get a free meal. Hell yes it will.