I have become friends with a Street Sense vendor who works outside CVS on P Street. I frequently buy a paper and he’s always happy to look after my dog if I run in to get something. I’ll also sometimes buy him a snack. One day he asked for cranberry juice. I went in, saw that the cranberry juice was sold out, and bought another flavor. I thought he would be happy, but I was wrong. When I came out he got angry and was quite rude. He ended up exchanging the juice for another flavor.
I must admit that I was quite annoyed. After a while, I was able to summon compassion and reason that he obviously had some feelings that I could not understand and I forgot about it. Dean’s sermon gave me a completely different understanding of this situation. I take for granted the ability to go into a store and buy myself a treat for a couple of dollars without much thought. My friend does not have this luxury. He wanted cranberry juice and was hoping to at least be able to control the flavor of his juice.
It made me wonder, what would it be like to not have a spare dollar or two to buy myself a treat when my day was full of difficulties beyond my control? What if I couldn’t rely on this coping mechanism that many of us use all the time?
(Our thanks to Alicia. Your thoughts are welcome, too. Email them to dsnyder at foundryumc.org).
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