The Corner People

I've been meaning to make a post about this for awhile. The situation happened a few months ago. I was driving home from school to my apartment in the city (around Penn and 122nd st). Now, in this area there are a lot of people who stand on the corner asking for money. Whenever I see them, it really aches me not to help them...and it's generally awkward for me to just keep looking ahead and ignore them. Occasionally I would roll down my window and give them a dollar or two if I had the money on me at the time. But at this situation, I just ignored the man, like most of the other drivers at that spot, and I finished driving back to my apartment. This was around noon-1pm. I left my apartment that afternoon around 5ish, and driving back to the same corner, I saw another man standing there with kids who had posters saying that they were a football team that needed money for new jerseys or something like that. The response from the other drivers at that stoplight was pretty tremendous. A lot of them were rolling down their windows and tossing money into the little bucket, me included. After giving them the money and starting to drive off, I remembered that earlier I hadn't given the money to the man that previously stood at that corner.

So here's the deal. The drivers that I saw [including myself] were more willing to give money to kids for a recreational sport as opposed to another fellow man for necessities. Okay, so the kids won't get new jerseys for their team, but this guy gets to eat tonight or make a purchase that will ensure longer term survival. True, the man could have been standing there looking for money to score drugs or alcohol; however, even if whatever statistics support the likelihood of this claim, we are judging this man by actions that we have no proof of knowing.

I realize that my argumentation is not the best here, and I know there are reasons for giving the money to the kids as opposed to the man, but it kinda bothers me that I would value giving money to benefit these random kids recreation as opposed to helping feed the random person. It just seems like the priorities seem a little skewed...

Birthdays

So, this last weekend I celebrated my 26th birthday. I guess I get it from my family, but we usually don't celebrate birthdays. Maybe go out to dinner, gifts generally are not involved, no real parties...for me, it's just another day.

I also try not to celebrate my bday because of the amount of thinking I usually do. It reminds me of filling out applications for schools and stuff or like quarterly or yearly reviews, where I sit down, look at my life and weigh what I ended up doing for the year. The pros, the cons, the triumphs and failures. Usually this kind of thinking ends with me being depressed for the rest of the weekend (nothing a little EtOH can't solve though...teehee).

Although I didn't really make plans for the weekend, I had a great impromptu dinner at Panavinos with a great set of friends, and then I hosted a dinner/game/movie night with a small group at my parent's place. Then the following night, I went over to Plyos' house and cooked for him and his family. Apparently I had a lot of food this weekend all-around.

For a weekend that I planned to sit around the house and mull things over (which would eventually lead to the previously stated depression), I ended up keeping pretty busy and realizing something. [This is where you insert the Southpark "You know, I learned something today" quotation].

Yes, birthday's can be a day of reflection, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it alone. Sure I could judge myself on my failures and criticize my life decisions. But being with the people I care about reminds me that there are good things in my life that I should also consider. I mean, these people care enough about me to want to come out and celebrate, this would imply that there is something about me to care about. And regardless of my shortcomings [and I know I have quite a few], I'm glad to see these people stand by my side.

Again...Thanks for the Birthday wishes for those who posted on my Facebook. Thanks for dinner and drinks and the company Skate, Miss Skate, Blu, Mrs. Blu, BP, Beersnob, Bunnicula and his roommate (and Skate and Miss Skate for the much needed ride home...teehee). Thanks to those who came over to dinner party. And thanks to Plyos and Mrs. Plyos for opening their house to me all these years.

I'm truly blessed with great friends and family.