Whom Can I Harm?

 

Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit. ~Eli Khamarov, Lives of the Cognoscenti

I was at North Station today in Boston and a homeless man came up to me. He was early 30’s, hands caked with dirt, tops of his shoes ripped off the soles and he asked for 50 cents. I was sitting there on a bench waiting for my train, reading a book and drinking my coffee when he approached me and asked for 50 cents. At first I said no I am sorry I don’t carry cash on me, but as I was saying no I looked into his eyes. They were black devoid of any color and filled with loneliness.

It is funny now as I reflect on this encounter and how his eyes looked back at me; there was no humiliation any humiliation was beaten out of him by living a life way too hard. As the man walked away my stare followed him. He had accepted my no with a shrug of the shoulder and simply walked on to the next row of benches to ask another woman and have her say no to him.

Before he reached the next row of benches and the next woman I yelled after him “Sir! Sir! Here I have something for you.” He ran back to me so fast I didn’t even see him until in a split second he was in front of me telling me he just wanted a hot cup of coffee. I gave him $2 and told him to enjoy his coffee. The gratitude he expressed was overwhelming. I was so grateful I had $2 to give him, that I took the time to assess his condition and that I had found enough compassion for my fellow man to help him.

The $2 I gave him is mere pittance compared to what that humble man gave to me this morning. The woman behind me on her side of the bench started to tell me she didn’t like it when people pan-handled in the station, but as I got up from the bench and called him back to me she got up and left her seat.

I go back to the Jamaican parable in my first post of the rich man who through food in the dirt rather than help the beggar woman feed herself and her family. Who was richer today? Certainly not the woman who got up from the bench behind me; I would like to think I was a little richer today in character for helping a man who had less than I did. If I were to forget what it was like to not know how I was going to eat today when I lost my business a couple of years ago what would I have learned about compassion? The Dalai Lama once said, “If you see yourself in others then whom can you harm.” Today my goal is to not cause harm to anyone because I see myself in everyone.