My Life: Snapshot 10 OCT 12

"Never forget to be hospitable, for by hospitality some have entertained angels unawares." ~ The Letter to the Hebrews chapter 13, verse 2.

There was a knock on my door this evening around 8 PM. It was dark out, and when I opened the door I encountered a black man of indiscernible age. He spoke his way through a rather eloquent well-rehearse and rote speech about standing up on his own two feet, not seeking a handout, participating in an organization that was helping him to make a better life for himself. I was careful to make certain that in the dark he was, in fact, alone while trying to be fully engaged in his pitch--his presence. The bottom line for him was his sale of magazines. The bottom line for me is that I just don't buy anything from anyone selling at my door. In the process of his sharing, he asked me to help him understand how I have overcome adversity in my life... I was dumbstruck. Here I am this fortunate man. I have a job I love. I have never wanted for any necessity in my entire life. I've never been hungry one night in my entire life. And I've never worried about any of it. I've often felt odd in that I am aware just how much I take my comforts, modest as they are, for granted. Yet in this moment, I could find no purposeful wisdom in my amiable experiences. Sensing my trouble in answering his question, he gently offered how his parents were drug addicts who died when he was just a kid. And then to further help me he mentioned that he was from Memphis originally and that meant he had to learn to speak properly. Suppressing a sudden desire to cry, I told him that I honestly had never faced a real hardship in my life, but that I had always worked hard, and whenever I met anyone who spoke negatively to me, I didn't believe what they said. I told him to ignore people who told him negative things... Then I stepped out onto my little porch and shook his hand and told him that he had done very well in presenting himself. He smiled so sincerely, and thanked me for my time.... like my time is worth anything.