"COMMON SENSE TRUMPS THE NEED TO HELP"

KINDNESS

helping others dampens the effects of everyday stress

    You're walking through the subway, late for work, rushing through the herds of people. As you're waiting for your train, a certain smell attracts your attention. You turn to the left to notice a homeless man, asleep in the corner. Feeling pitiful, you place some cash on the bowl next to him, he gets up and weakly thanks you. Your train arrives and you scurry to it.

subway 

    All through the day, you can't help but think about that man in subway. "What could've possibly happened to that man that led him to that situation?" The intriguing feeling kept bothering you. You had to meet that man again. It's 5 p.m. as soon as you clock out, you run as fast as you can to the subway. You get on the first train despite being extremely claustrophobic with the situation. Your station comes up, you desperately push through people to get out, you look for the man. He is nowhere to be seen.

subway riders 

   Feeling disappointed, you walk home. You fall asleep that night with that man in your thoughts. The next morning, you take the day off. "Why am i doing this ?", you think to yourself. "He's not anyone important anyway." Nevertheless, you get ready to meet him. 

  As you approach the man, "Hey, can I talk to you?" "Sure" he says, "Thanks for breakfast." You smile at him, saying it's not a big deal. You get straight to business."What happened to you? Why are you in this situation?"

untold stories

   The homeless guy looks up at you with a smile, he says, "By showing love." You're perplexed, so you ask him, "What do you mean by that?" The homeless guy replied "Throughout my whole life, I made sure that everyone was happy. No matter what was going on, right or wrong in my life, I always helped everyone."

   You ask him, "Do you regret it?" To which he replies, "No, it just hurts my soul that the very people I gave the shirt off my back to wouldn't give me a sleeve off that same shirt when I was in need. Son, it is better to build your own house and invite someone in for shelter than to hand them your bricks while you are building yours. Because one day you will turn around and look at the spot where you had planned to build your house. It will be an empty lot. Then you are the one looking for bricks."

MORAL : Helping others is not a bad thing at all. But sometimes while we are helping others, we forget our own problems and needs. One must remember that sometimes sharing is better than giving away. You can do a lot more by being in a strong position instead of bringing yourself weaker situation just because you have the compelling need to help others.

Ashy.

" No one has ever become poor by giving. "

 ~ Anne Frank