Snow Day

Sleet, freezing rain and snow all day yesterday left The Lou closed down. Schools and offices, including my own, are taking an extra Friday off as the city workers clean the streets. From thirteen floors up, it is beautiful-a view overlooking a park with ice and snow hanging in the trees, untouched ground, and kids sledding down hills. Tea, stew, and fresh baked bread keep me warm. It is a day for reading, writing, and taking as many naps as I can.

After lunch, I sat down and started to look through the magazines pilled up on the coffee table. I picked up What's Up. The magazine sold by the homeless providing them with income and readers with news on the state of homelessness, social issues, and local flavor. It is a thing to buy like free trade coffee or a red iPod to show you have a moral conscious.

Flipping through the pages, I began to wonder what it must be like for the sellers of the magazine on a day like this one. A decrease in customers would be inconsequential problem to the fact that they were cold, wet, and hungry with some having slept outside last night. Instead of escaping to stew and tea, they escape to doorways, alleys, and crowded unsafe shelters. My gift only goes so far to help them.

I wonder if we are more like the Pharisees then the widow with our gifts. If what we give to charity is not what we sacrifice but enough to do what society accepts and get noticed. How many times have I sacrificed book, a game, or even a new shirt for a gift to charity? How many times have I given a gift to a charity not to help the ones in need, but because it is expected of me or I wish to fit in?

I like to think of myself as a giving person. Yet, when I compare how much I have and how much more I could give to how others suffer, it is shameful. In the end, though I pushed these thoughts out of my mind and went with A to the new Bond movie.