Hello. My name is Don. Since I can't tweet all of this, I decided to put it here and then share it. I wanted to share something that happened to me today. I was dropping my daughter off at work, and when I pulled up to the front of the store, I saw a guy standing in the parking lot playing an accordian. Yes,an accordian. He was a Hispanic man short and stocky, clean shaven and dressed nicely. This man was standing in the hot sun playing an accordian. I heard my daughter say 'he's back' and wondered how long he has been doing this. I wished her a good day and she went into work I glanced at the sign next to him that said 'I have a 2yr old'....... I stopped reading after 2yr old because I was so captivated by what was coming out of that instrument, one that I have never really cared for the sound of before. The melody was beautiful, and for a brief moment I was at peace and the chaos around me gone. In this age of plastic, I rarely ever have cash on me, but I remembered I had a winning lottery ticket in my center console. I don't even remember how much it was for, but I was compelled to give it to him.
Where I'm from, I see many street corners with a 'homeless person' setting up shop. I never give because either I don't have cash, or I can tell there not really homeless. You can tell when someone has been sleeping in dirt or has wiped themselves with it. Plus beautiful makeup and Nike shoes tend to give them away. I started to research this epidemic and found some interesting things about the homeless around me. I happened to see one working in a grocery store one evening, and when I inquired about his homelessness, he told me of the study he is involved with. Apparently there is a government grant program involved with what he was doing. He gets payed to pretend to be homeless and reports daily. This is one of the reasons I don't give anymore. It's sad that liberals have put this out there, as it not only demeans the homeless, but also limits there resources.
Yet I was still compelled to give this man a lottery ticket to cash. Giving it to him didn't make me feel any better about society or where we ae today, but his head nod and 'gracias' left me feeling better about what I did. He was trying to portray himself as homeless, he was just a guy trying to get a little extra money for his responsibilites.
It's amazing how a simple melody, played with passion, can make the world, if only for one brief moment, a better place to be. I just wanted to share that.