Lent 2011 Part III

I remembered a brief experience I had several months ago. While I was on jury duty I was walking to a pizza place I had gone to the day before during lunch and passed a man asking for money. I didn't have any cash and I had a whole hour for lunch so I asked him if he'd like to get some pizza with me. We walked several blocks together in an awkward silence and he got his pizza and took it outside to eat alone. This was the first time I had done anything beyond giving someone money so I think that maybe this experience is what gave me the idea to pursue it as a Lenten project.

Today, with leftovers for lunch, I didn't meet anyone until I was on my way home at 5pm-ish. As I exited the convention center, through which I walk on my way to the bus, I saw someone with a cardboard sign and a fox tail across the street. Initially I convinced myself that I was too tired and could always do this tomorrow and I continued to the bus stop a couple blocks away. As I waited for the bus I was realizing that I was trading the 15 minutes or so to get someone food for a tiny bit of comfort for myself. There were a lot of people waiting for the bus so I decided to leave it up to chance...if there wasn't room on the next bus that showed up I would go back and get them lunch. When two 312s showed up I was able to laugh at how ridiculous I was being trying to justify and finagle my way around this commitment I'd made so I crossed the street and started my way back.

Right across the street I ran into a Vet, as his sign read, sitting on the ground asleep at a corner with a plastic cup in front of him. I thought about it and decided to let him sleep, I felt I'd already picked who I was going to go to. Just across the street there was a young man who's sign said he was just trying to get home, I decided to ask him if I could get him something from Subway and he walked with me. He told me that he was trying to get home to someplace in California, I didn't catch the city name. He was pretty nice, very thankful and very annoyed at his friends who had "abandoned" him up here. He said he wasn't used to the weather.

I had the sandwich maker double his meatball sandwich with chipoltle sauce and a coke (It seems he'd had occasion to order the same thing earlier in the day so they knew what he wanted already) and brought the second sandwich to the first person I'd seen with the tail. Evidently the two knew each other, siblings?, as he followed me over and started talking with the girl with the tail. They both thanked me and I ran off to narrowly miss the 522. Hopefully they make it home alright.