I came across a video on Facebook this morning and it gave me pause for thought. We are so busy thinking about ourselves, our wants, our own happiness… and when we walk down the street and pass those less fortunate, how many of us move away from them because they make us uncomfortable? Do we help in any way?
“Oh,” we say…”I give to charity…”
I recall speaking to a woman whose sibling was on the street, she said she’d had quite a conversation one day and asked what the worst part of it was.
The answer?
“Nobody looks at you, nobody ever smiles at you, you are made to feel like you aren’t human.”
I love this short video, three young people gave something special to a homeless fellow, they humanized him for a few moments and gave him something more than a few coins.
Sure, it’s staged, sure, maybe the fellow isn’t really homeless and was acting, sure, maybe the three created a viral video that brought the attention to them.
But there is also a good message in here.
It’s worth the time to watch, and maybe you’ll smile at someone on the street today instead of just walking past uncomfortably while lost in your own world of “me”.