Touching......Moving.

Before I came to the Library today, I was tired. So I, like many others found me a park bench to crash on. I had went earlier to breakfast at S.O.M.E. and was still a little full. Good breakfast. Bacon, eggs, grits, coffee, and milk.

So, I walked up into one of the small parks in the business district in North West, near the White House. I can never remember the names of these parks. Anyway, I found me a reasonably comfortable position, and actually fell asleep for about an hour. I was awakened by the small voice of an East Indian man. "Sir", "sir". "Hello"? He finally got my attention. As I awoke, I pulled down my shades (I wear them to keep people from staring you in the eye), and he says to me: "There is some food in the red van across the park." I said Thank you to him with a curious look on my face. Here was a man, a total stranger, not to mention from a totally different culture that was offering me food. I thought, "How nice". As I walked over, I found an East Indian family or friends of about 6 in number. This included a little boy of about 8 years old passing out bottled water. I waited in line, and as I glanced in the back of their van, I saw what appeared to be dozens and dozens of lunches packed neatly in styrofoam containers. The procession was so neat an orderly. The women had it down pat. You could tell that they had done this before. I was given a lunch packed neatly in a plastic bag, along with a smaller paper bag inside which included some cheese crackers and eating utensils, wrapped neatly in a napkin for sterility. I was so impressed. As I carried my lunch back to the bench I had been asleep on, I asked another guy that had received one of the lunches and was chowing down, if it was good. He said yes. Very. I responded, cool. I sat down opened it up, and it smelled sooooo good! A mixture of potatoes, rice, beans, and something else that I could not identify. As I began to eat, I couldn't stop thinking about how good it was. I had eaten East Indian food many times, but this was much different. A home cooked meal. Outstanding!

As I finished, I put my plastic bag and the contents in a nearby trash can. Then, being so impressed with the little, but at the same time mass lunch serving, went over to the red van. As I approached they were doing what appeared to be the clean up and departure scenario. I had to let the family know who good their food was, and especially so, since they do not use meat. I let the females know how appetizing it was and that I never missed the meat that was absent. But my real reason for approaching them was to 'thank' them for their anonymous kindness, for taking the time to help those that could not help themselves. I also thanked them for all the ones that did 'not' take the time to say thank you. Some grabbed bagged lunches, turned heels, and departed. I apologized for them, and told the family to not take it personally as many of these people have led hard lives, and how many had struggled to survive the previous night. They graciously accepted the compliment and departed. How humanitarian.

There are many times that I often wished that I had the physical resources (i.e. car or van) and monies to be able to do the same thing. If I had a million dollars in my possession, being the person that I am, I know that probably 75% of it would probably go to the many that cannot help themselves. I've always had the proverbial 'soft spot' in my heart for the "under-dog" in life.

Sigh! A nice dream!