pigeon settles
looking for a meal-
spare change
Yesterday while wandering around the city Ava and I gave out lots of change and bought coffee to people we met. Some who asked were looking for a meal, some asking for bus fare, on guy even offered $4 in exchange for $5, and one lady only needed .30. We were downtown about 5 hours and by the 4th hour I had no cash on me.
Ava and I sat under the Picasso Statue in Daley Plaza and discussed the day. Ava said “Daddy, why don’t people take care of the homeless?”
I told her that it seems to me that our society is so busy most people do not even see them. The News doesn’t talk about them, there are no relativity TV shows about them, no tabloid coverage of their exploits.
Her question led me to ponder this farther and the following is what spewed forth. I apologize for any disjointedness
Throughout history the old and dying, the poor and sick have been pushed out of sight. The story of the Buddha’s early life illustrates this very well.
Siddhartha Gautama’s father tried to keep him from seeing this suffering. His father wanted to protect him from seeing such horrible things and yet Siddhartha when he saw them realized that such things happen to all of us no matter what we do.
In our time the media, make up companies, plastic surgeons, alternative product companies and old age homes, to mention a few, act just like Siddhartha’s father. They try and distract us from the reality of life by inundating our lives with “false images” of celebrities and happy beautiful people.
So when you are out in your town take a moment to truly see the world as it is and help those who are in need.
