At Cilantro's lunch spot today. The pastor who I gave the dollar to yesterday bought me lunch. (Thank you God!) The second server in the serving line was the third person who spoke to me. I gave her a dollar, I told her it was not a tip, (I put a separate tip in the tip jar) and explained the deal. She took it without comment or thanks. The other servers in the serving line immediately started to protest and give her a hard time. I took their photo above.
After lunch, as my friend and I we were leaving and out on the street, a homeless appearing guy came up to us and started telling us about his medical condition and his need for $3.50. I immediately gave him a dollar. He looked at it with frustration and said "But I need $3.50!" I said, "Well, you're part of the way there!" My friend then got out his wallet, opened it up showing the single dollar (this is the dollar I gave to him yesterday) and gave it to the guy. The guy said "But I need $3.50." I said to him, "Well, now you are more than half way there!"
The guy looked at us, and started to walk away. And said "You is some negro." (He was an older black guy, I was not sure how to take this, so I took it as a compliment.) My friend said, "Now you know why my wife won't let me carry money." (Thank you God!)
The next day I ran into an African American friend and asked him what "You is some negro" might mean. He told me it was a way of saying that the guy thought I was "being stingy."
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I love our church and usually go along with most of the exercises, even if I don't know where it is going. And in the past, sometimes the results have been fortuitous. But this dollar thing really doesn't resonate with me: 1) some days, the only person I see is Dad, and trading a dollar back and forth with a Southern Baptist who looks askance at my religious practice doesn't seem to be advancing any balls; 2) the practice of arbitrarily giving a dollar to the third person seems gimmicky to me, not addressing anything that is going on in the world at that moment - which is validated by the grief the waitress got and you got form the street person with the $3.50 medical problem (what could that be anyway, need of Ibupropen,dental floss?); and 3) I lived for sort of extended periods in NYC and DC, and learned deep in my bones 2 things:a) put your purse behind your legs on the floor of the car so you don't tempt smash-and-grabbers, and b) don't let strangers know where you keep your money.
ReplyDeleteLinda