Yesterday I pulled into a parking spot at my local Ralph's grocery store. A few minutes later a car parked next to me and a blond woman exited. She had an employee badge dangling from a lanyard.
I remained in my car checking my grocery list when I noticed how filthy her car was; the car hadn't been washed in months from the layers of dirt that had accumulated. It reminded me of the rings on a tree that tell its history of how many years it's been growing.
I then noticed all the clutter in her car. It was filled with papers, empty containers and plastic bags. Only the driver's seat was clear of debris.
[caption id="attachment_42" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Material Possessions of Homeless Persons"]
[/caption]All at once I felt sad for her because she may be homeless, but she was obviously working and trying to regain balance in her life. However, if she parked this vehicle at the employee lot then everyone would know she was homeless and what a terrible realism this would be.
I contemplated how I might help her: Should I offer to pay for a car wash? Offer her the use of my water and drive way and we could wash the car together? Help her find shelter away from the car?
In the end I wasted so much time pondering what to do that she returned, entered her car and drove away. My fear of approaching her and being rebuffed paralyzed me and I'd failed to reach out and possibly help someone.
I had a similar awkward moment which almost turned embarrassing for me. A car very much as the one you observed parked in a special reserved area of our employee parking lot.I assumed as you did, a homeless person must work here and in my case I thought they erroneously took the parking spot as it was reserved for certain government officials which I know to be well paid.
ReplyDeleteAs it turned out, that car did belong to that well paid government official and that was simply how they lived their life. Sometimes life throws us a curve.
@pfmonaco
Paul, thank you for sharing your experience which helped me feel less awkward about mine. Your observation about people living differently than what's popularly accepted as the norm is so true. It's not bad, worse or terrible - what it is is simply "different" and there is nothing wrong with that!
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