Today on the way to work, there was a homeless man standing by the L stop asking for money to get on the train. I don’t know if it was his look, or his voice, that made the image of him begging for help stuck in my head. “I just need 85 cents to get on the L, anyone, please?”
People hurried past him, nobody stopped. I didn’t either. It was the morning rush hour, we were all on a mission to get to work on time. It probably would take two minutes to get my wallet out and search through the change I have to find a dollar for this man. But what if those two minutes caused me to miss my train. We all have had the pleasure of running towards the train just to have the door closed in our faces, and the next train takes forever to come. Two minutes can be the difference of me getting on that first train or not. That was my rationale anyway. That was why I only turned for a split second to look at the man and quickly moved on. Now I wish I had stopped to give him some money. I hope someone helped him.