A few weeks ago, I was taking my eldest on a trip for him to complete a financial transaction as part of his desire to further his interests in coins. There is a lot of aspects and levels to all of this that's not something I would really go into on a blog (as it would involve revealing some more personal information about myself and my family I'd rather not have online), but let's just say I was doing so to - among other things - fulfill a parental duty.
While driving back, we found ourselves at a red light on a road that leads to an intersection to 2 different highways.
While at the red light, I saw seated on the sidewalk a relatively young woman with a sign requesting money. She looked disheveled, homeless, and in need of shelter, but what really horrified me was that next to her was a little boy.
He couldn't have been more than 2. He was standing there, next to this woman.
Presumably they were mother and son.
They were non-white. One could make a case they were in dire straits.
I haven't stopped thinking about this woman and this boy ever since.
The woman could've been as old an my wife. The boy wasn't too far younger than my own youngest.
What happened to them? Are they alright? Why didn't I give them some money? What could I have done?
I thought about how fortunate I was to be dragged along on what seemed like an indulgent middle-class hobby of an activity, burning up more fossil fuels and doing my part to emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
I felt entitled and ashamed for doing all those things, and for doing nothing else, and then even more so for thinking about how I should write about this on a fucking blog.
I can see how some of my white colleagues at work would react to all of this - I won't bother posting that here.
But aside from all of that, I found myself ultimately asking myself - Am I so wonderful a person in my own life that I can simply drive on by while others - circumstances aside - suffer, and possibly die?
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