By JOSEFA PETE
Sitting in the confines of the City Library, a one day workshop on writing and my mind should have been awash with inspiring creative thoughts; instead all I could think about was hamburgers.
I had an all-consuming hamburger craving and every word from the speakers was muffled with my mind screaming for a hamburger. One hour for lunch and I dashed out deep into the basement of one of the CBD’s shopping centres and ordered one hamburger with the lot and a side of fries. Within minutes, my little plate of heaven was handed to me.
The first bite and very quickly my experience became quite ho-hum. The burger wasn’t great. Disappointed and worse still, I didn’t have time for an alternative. I pulled out my phone to be distracted by my twitter feed as I kept eating what was now my lunch, but certainly not my expectation.
On my second bite, a middle-aged man walked past me. He was pale, dressed in a light pair of tracksuit pants and a t-shirt, which seemed strange on such a cold Melbourne day. He started to rummage through the bin behind me. Silently, he was pulling out scraps of food and placing them in a ripped brown paper bag. I put my hamburger down and couldn’t stop watching. He sat down and ate the few scraps he had rummaged. Now my lunch tasted even worse.
“Excuse me Sir, I saw you looking for food, so I bought you a pizza.”
I turned around to see a tall, poised woman, in her smart business suit, handing over a cardboard pizza box to the man. She was sharp and concise. As soon as she handed him the pizza, she turned on her heel, stepped onto the escalator and was gone. There was no exchange of thank you, no exchange of any more words at all.
I was dumbfounded and felt incredibly overwhelmed. With my phone ready to tweet out the good deed I had just witnessed, I was stopped again.
“She must be doing an online thing,” said one woman.
“She is not going to solve his problems with one pizza,” replied the other.
I put down my phone. I did a quick look around to make sure there were no hidden cameras appearing out of nowhere; surely this was some sort of reality prank show?
But there were no cameras. Instead, the conversation was between two women who were sitting in front of me, sharing their lunch break.
Like ferocious seagulls, these women picked at the motives of the business woman, deplored her actions and rolled their eyes at her character.
Within minutes they tore down any integrity and compassion that this random act of kindness may have had. I was speechless and now had completely lost my appetite.
The women left and my own lunch break was quickly ending. As I stood up, I saw the man again. He was still looking for food. I looked down at my plate. I had three-quarters of a hamburger and most of my fries left over.
My conscience was turning over on itself. I felt bad asking the man if he wanted my left overs. I don’t know why, but I did. The best I could do was to not throw out my lunch and leave my plate there. At the top of the escalator I turned back and there was the man, eating my ho-hum hamburger and fries.
For the rest of the day I kept wondering if society has completely lost its sense of humanity. Buying a hot lunch for a person in need is inherently good; not debatable nor deplorable. Whether that moment of kindness solves the person’s problems or not is irrelevant. Too often we act as the seagulls, more often we should act out of kindness.
Josefa Pete lives in Melbourne, with her husband and two young sons. She battles through motherhood and life, with her false eyelashes and a non-stop supply of coffee. Her big-extended family and boisterous boys give her many reasons to find her sanity through her words. You can follow Josefa’s blog and her Twitter. You can also find her on Facebook here.
Top Comments
It's that easy seriously.
When I was at Uni at VCA I used to buy this old guy a coffee & donut every Thursday when I got paid, i was a broke student, but i could afford a coffe & donut once a week. He was the sweetest man & I wondered how he ended up on the streets.
A few weeks ago a guy was drawing pictures & selling handmade cards outside Myers flagship store, his hoody was filthy had lots of holes in it, so I went around the corner to buy him a new one & a pair of warm socks( they were up selling).
I was so touched when he said I should give it to someone else because he had another one on underneath that was better & some of the blokes uptown could really use a new one. This was his painting one & waring two kept him prtty warm. I said if he knew someone else who needed it more, i was happy for him to pass it on.
Decided right then that every time I take the kids shopping & they have a deal to get a 2nd one half price, I should just do it, because on my next trip to the city there will be someone who needs it.
The artist's name is Wayne. We buy cards from him all the time.
How profound is this post... I have just today discovered a page called 'The Kindness Ministry" which I am sure is here to teach us basic kindness which has been so totally forgotten. ANZAC day this year we enjoyed a fabulous meal with friends - 2 of us/them smoke so the said two went out to the smoking area where there were a couple of Vietnam Vets scrounging the ashtrays looking for anything that was worth smoking - my heart bled to observe this... one did ask for a smoke and was given one... when said smokers left the area both handed over their packs to said Vets... This is not about promoting smoking obviously, had it been about food the outcome would have been the exact same - GIVING for no other reason than because we can!!!