One Reason Why I’m Not A Cynic

betheboy:

Yesterday while riding the train home I was approached by a man who asked me if I could help him out. I don’t know if he was homeless but he looked to be in pretty bad shape so I gave him what I could. I usually do this, not because I’m a wonderful or special person, but just because I’m a person who believes that I have a responsibility to help those who have less than I do. Now I also happen to be a person who at one point in his life didn’t have a dollar to his name so I’m probably a little more sympathetic than some others when it comes to handing out spare change but that’s not the point of this story. I’m telling you about this because after I gave this man some money something happened that I won’t forget for some time.

The man I had given money to had walked from the other end of the train car to get to me (on his way a few other people gave him some money too) and then he stood in the corner of the car by the door. Two stops later a woman boarded the train on the far end from where I was seated and asked passengers if they could spare some change. Judging solely from the condition of her clothes I gathered that she was worse off than the man I had just given money to; she looked and sounded desperate. Thankfully a few passengers assisted her but at this point I had no cash on me and nothing I could give that I thought would be of  use to her.

When she reached me I said that I was sorry but I could not help. I watched her as she continued to the end of the car where she met the man I had given money to just minutes before. They looked at one another for a moment and then he quietly reached into his pocket and gave her some of his money.

The world is a cruel and dark place sometimes, but it’s not all bad. Be kind.

(via professionallush)

“We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating. And — as he might also have said — we’re rushing to meet so many deadlines that we hardly register that what we need most are lifelines.

So what to do? The central paradox of the machines that have made our lives so much brighter, quicker, longer and healthier is that they cannot teach us how to make the best use of them; the information revolution came without an instruction manual. All the data in the world cannot teach us how to sift through data; images don’t show us how to process images. The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen.”

— from The Joy of Quiet, Pico Iyer

(Source: The New York Times)