Okay, I'll admit that I might be a softer touch than I play on TV, err, this blog, or life in general. I am a natural skeptic so if you tell me definitively that something is black you should know that in my mind I'm puzzling out alternate opinions. It is with that long winded preamble that I begin my original thought on a homeless folk interaction.
I have already stated that if you are truly without shelter in this part of the country you are in real trouble or just nuts. Some degree of mental illness including addiction is the usual suspect so handing out money has never felt right to me personally. That being said I have a weakness for children begging. I can't imagine that kind of life for a child and it breaks my heart every time so I usually hand over some cash. Except the last time I gave a small child $20 they ran over to an obviously high adult and immediately turned it over. Shit. Chances of that being shared with the kid were low to NO.
So I started buying gift cards with my lunches. Wherever I eat I just add an extra $10 on to the end and get a card I can hand out instead of the instant drug currency. Before you think to leave a comment about turning those cards into drugs I understand that is a possibility but my theory is that hopefully the ass pain might make them buy some food for the kids while they're at it. Holy long winded explanation before the real story...
Yesterday I was walking in the habitrail grabbing some lunch when a kid asked if I could spare some money for lunch. I said sure and grabbed one of my Subway gift cards because we were in the same connecting tube as one of those restaurants. As soon as he took it an angry adult female of impressive proportion appeared and began yelling at me. Volume at 11 attempting to scream shame me into coughing up some cash. I tried in vain to explain that I had no currency but I'm pretty sure she couldn't hear me over her own shouting. I backed away but my assailant made as if to follow.
I had a flash of my image captured on cell phone video being shown on the local news with a crawl beneath reading "attacks local homeless woman" so I turned and shuffled away. *side note: at least two phones were up in video record position and pointed my way. As I replayed the scene in my head the kid looked nothing like the hulk so I wondered if she somehow rented him for the day. I put him at around 10 years old and he should have been in school but with COVID who can keep track? That little interaction put me in a weird place for the rest of the afternoon.
Luckily there is a lot going on around here to occupy my brain. I might actually have to do some volunteer work to unscrew myself after this one.