Offering two fives for a ten can save someone a trip to the emergency room.

 This week I dropped of the items to the woman who had responded to the craigslist ad. It was hard not to judge the meth teeth, but eh, what does it matter really? I don’t care if you do meth, it’s none of my business. I drink whiskey. Her teeth rot, mine turn brown. At least I can use a whitener.

I didn’t stick around too long to chat it up with this girl, though she was very nice, she definitely had the milk-it vibe. I will sympathize with you, I’ll give you what I can, but if you’re trying to milk-it, I don’t want any part of it. So, I say success.

  On another day, I was at the store, and the cashier mentioned she was low on five- dollar bills. I offered to give her two fives for a ten. Doesn’t really sound like much and I ignored the thought at first, it wasn’t my problem? Right? Just go to the bank already, but….”I give what I have”. Maybe the cashier gets so stressed out at the thought of not having enough fives in her drawer, that she then breaks into hives, which then requires a trip to the emergency room? I just saved this innocent little cashier a trip to the emergency room trip. A job well done.

Today, I saw a man with a gas can and a sign, on the side of the road, by Home Depot. I don’t trust the type, but you got to hand it to a person, that whatever the circumstances be, it takes a bit of ego crushing to stand on a corner with a sign. I believe some people really need help and others, well…the truth will find you out in the end, but it is not my responsibility to judge circumstances, which I will say, I very much did so today. So I left. I went to the post office to drop off a driver’s license that I had found the other day. I fully intended to count this as my giving for the day. Does the post office still mail driver’s licenses’ back to people if you just drop them in? I have no idea. I don’t care really, I’m sure this person, from several states away, had since replaced it, but I was not going to pass up an easy out for giving today. But it never works that way. I kept thinking about that guy on the corner with the gas can.  So what do I do? I continue on my way to finish running my errands. Why is it always money I think I should give, and not money per se in this circumstance, but something that would definitely cost me financially? I don’t have a steady income. How am I supposed to keep giving money to other people when my circumstances are uncertain? I finished my errands, and what do you know, I start driving back towards Home Depot hoping that this guy was gone so that I didn’t have to fill up that can. Isn’t that horrible. Why am I acting like this? Why am I so concerned about me? I pull into the parking lot and was relieved when at first I couldn’t see the guy. Then…there he was, and…there someone else was, handing him back a full gas can. Then…there I was, feeling bad that I didn’t act when I first had the inkling. Gas can man started to walk away and I called to him, handed him ten dollars and drove away. If he couldn’t afford to fill it up the first time, maybe he couldn’t afford dinner either, or maybe ten dollars relieves just an itsy bitsy teeny bit of stress, and he can breathe for a second. It’s not much, but it was a lot to me, and more than likely, a lot for him.

Lesson: Offering two fives for a ten can save someone a trip to the emergency room.