Every year, my company undertakes charitable projects. They’re entirely employee generated and not endorsed by the company, but likewise not discouraged. And with Christmas looming large, we have a new one: giving food and warm gloves and hats to the people that live under the bridges on MoPac.
The bridge people live in and around some of the most affluent people in Austin. But I have been told that they are among the most resistant to seeking help, either from shelters or other social service organizations. From what I can gather, most of them are mentally ill and suspicious of the people that could help them it they would just allow it.
When I think about how close I’ve come to losing everything, including my mind, I can’t help but feel a responsibility for those folks. There, but for the grace of God, go I. And Shannon was on a road towards that when I met him.
Shannon is different in that he has recognized that he needs help and has accepted it. The bridge people can’t quite get there.
I don’t know if handing out stuff will help any, but it might keep some of them from dieing the next time we have a really bad cold snap. It only takes a few hours of exposure to very cold air with wind to kill someone.
And while they’re mostly crazy, that’s no reason for a death sentence.
This one has hit home, so that’s what we’ll do with the money we don’t spend on other people.
No one that we know actually needs anything that we could give them. They have the same problems as we do, but they don’t really need anything that we could give them. And God knows that me and Shannon don’t need anything we don’t have.
We don’t have a lot, but there are many more who have even less. “Less”, by the way, means “nothing”.
Something to think about as the Christmas frenzy ramps up into high gear.
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