What do you think was the motivation for writing this piece?

(Click the post title to read the submission.)

This reminds me of something I hadn’t thought of in a long time. I remember waking up one morning to the sound of clinking glass. I went to the window and saw a homeless person going through my recycling bin and picking up all the glass bottles and aluminum cans in there (she must of been in heaven, seeing as how many wine bottles were in there) and collecting them in a large garbage bag. She looked really thin and the load looked really big and heavy. She’d already been through most of the bins on my street, so her bag was getting full. I went outside and offered her some toast, or some coffee, and she just smiled at me and said “thanks, but I got to get going before the others pick up all the good stuff”.

She makes 5 cents off aluminum cans and 10 cents off the bottles, and that’s if she doesn’t get thrown out of the store before cashing in. I guess she might have had about two dollar’s worth when I spoke to her, and yet she carried that bag on her shoulder like it wasn’t as nearly as full as it was going to be. I watched as she got further along the street and some neighbors shooed her off, yelling at her to leave their garbage alone and she just hunched her shoulders and walked towards the next bin.

I guess coffee and some toast sounded good, but lunch and dinner sounded better. As much as this made me feel really bad for all the overindulging I do without thinking about it, it made me feel good that my scraps could help someone else. I just wish there had been another way.

- Star

Thanks for sharing your expereince Star!

Good piece Prometheus. Just this past summer I saw some poor kid with his sisters watching carrying a cardboard sign needing food and I went home and emptied my cupboard of all spare food I could find even though I was broke and back on the rent myself. He seemed embarrassed but relieved. I told him it was okay, he was earning it, he said how and I told him someday he’d have to do the same for someone else when he was better off, then I asked him if he needed me to take them to a shelter but he said no, his dad just up and left them and his mom was getting a job and they’d be okay in a few weeks. I watched him walk his food to his sisters, them go through the bag and in the house. I never saw them begging again, they don’t live far from here.

Wish I could have done and always feel like shit because I can’t do enough. No one ever can. I guess it has to be enough if we all do what we can. It’s amazing with all the taxes that are taken from us in all the civilized nations, that things keep deteriorating and the people get poorer and poorer, it should be the other way around. But hey, I guess cutting edge laser bombs and Presidential entourages don’t come cheap.