Day 6: Feeling Bad

He said it in passing, but it made deep sense to me.

I met a friend to chat this afternoon at Dunkin Donuts. He had a breakfast croissant and a hot chocolate. I had my water bottle but wished I had a breakfast croissant and a hot chocolate. He didn't know about A Dollar to Remember, and when he noticed I wasn't getting anything to eat, he said:

"Please get something. It makes me feel bad that I'm eating all this if you don't."

He didn't think much about the passing statement (and he wasn't actually eating too much), but in my situation, it struck me as profound.

That's exactly how I feel about the poor most of the time. I feel bad that I have something they don't. And I don't know how to respond, so the way I cope is to somehow say, "Please get better."

Or worse, I ignore the situation. How many times have I walked by a homeless person on the street and averted me eyes to suppress the bad feelings I have?

It feels uncomfortable for me to look straight into the faces of poverty. I still don't like it. But being even a little in their shoes makes me realize that feeling bad doesn't help anything.

The problem is still there.