It was late afternoon as the fall sun sets beyond the trees; I swept the front stoop on my home. A middle-aged man wearing worn clothes carrying a red bag approached me. Behind his mask, he mumbled something that I could not understand. What was he saying? I listened keenly to make out his words. He might have been speaking some language other than English. He stood by the gate and looked at me when he realized that I did not understand his words; he showed the universal gesture. He rubbed his belly and touched his mouth.
“You need something to eat?” I asked him, and he nodded his head.
What was I going to give him? I told him to hold on and went to the back.
“Mom, Mom! What do you have to eat?”
“Nothing,” she answered.
“Do you have bread and cheese?”
“Yes.”
“Can you make me a cheese sandwich for a man? He said that he was hungry. He is waiting out front,” I asked.
“Okay,” Mom said and I waited. She gave me the sandwich wrapped in foil paper and a bottle of water. I walked back to the front, and the man was nowhere in my sight. I felt that I was too late and left without the food, but he materialized from between two SUVs. I handed him the sandwich and the bottle of water.
He said, “Thank you,” and walked away.
I watched him as my neighbor walked around from her car. He had gone to ask her for food as well. She did not have any food to give him. She praised me for my generosity and kind heart. I love to help others in need in whatever way I could; that is my disposition.
I knew what it was like to be hungry for a moment or how it felt to go without food before my next meal and disliked the feeling of emptiness. I have never experienced having to beg for food because of hunger. I have never experienced having to go without food because I did not have anything to eat. I felt obliged to help this man. I felt a sense of contentment doing that good deed. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Ok, I said it!