No Pain, No Gain
There is a man I see everyday in my way to work who just stands and begs for the cars passing by, I see him everyday; I mean everyday! Well except on Fridays and some Thursdays that I am off.
He is not that old not having strength to work, and he is so eager to earn money that he wakes up THAT early EVERY morning just for begging! And as I've noticed lots of cars pay him! and the amount they give him is out of my imagination! Some even give him one green paper! -we call it green paper in persian, it's 1000 Tomans which is a bit more than 1$, but since dollar is much more expensive than Tomans, 1$ would be much more to us than what it is to non Iranians.-
And today, I saw another man his age standing right beside him sweeping the street, I was wondering what differences people have that one begs for money and the other one sweats for it!
I don't like giving money to these kind of people, specially to this man, just because I think and know he can do something better than just standing and being no use for the society. Money doesn't come easily, it needs hard working, either by brain and knowledge or by strength and action.
Today I adored the old man sweeping the street. I wish people would notice and help the people who deserve helping, who at least try for it.
posted by Her Life Goes On @ 2:54 PM
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4 Comments:
There is nothing wrong in what you say except that it's very speculative on your part. You don't know the details. Maybe the man with the broom has a cousin who dishonestly got him the job. Maybe the crooked cousin even takes a percentage of the man's pay.
Of course, maybe you're right and the man who begs is lazy or no damn good. It would be interesting if you could just go ask them, wouldn't it? Possibly neither man would turn out to be more honest or moral than the other, just similar men in different circumstances.
I wonder about these people, drifters or transients. I've often stopped at intersections, usually interstate highway ramps, and been bombarded with pitiful looks and torn signs begging for money. Sometimes they have a skinny dog with them to help pull at the heartstrings. I think about where they might have come from, where they might be going, that they are someone's son or daughter, brother or sister and maybe even someone's parent. I wonder what they're thinking, what hardship they might have gone through.
Sometimes I envy the drifters. They are free, traveling where ever the day takes them, surviving on nothing. They see a world I hope I'll never see.
America closed all of the mental hospitals so there's no place for people who are mentally afflicted to live and be provided with the proper care they need. The amount of transients has steadily increased in the U.S. since the decline of available public mental health centers. I'm not saying all beggers have psychiatric disabilities but I bet a majority of them are trying as best they can to cope with cronic depression, schizophrenia, drug dependency, or some form of dementia.
But what bothers me is that he always smiles, he doesn't even look ill or something, he looks better than everybody else!! The way he smiles teases me. It gives me this feeling that it's his job, not his need for help!
Well, there are those in the world who are like that, too. Whether we consider THAT yet one more form of craziness is up to each of us. I've had friends who, I felt, had finally gone that kind of glad-to-be-this-crazy and I just evaded them from then on.
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