Rant #1,605: The Enabler

Well, the Super Bowl is over, and we can all finally get back to some level of normalcy.

The snow is supposed to be coming to my neck of the woods, and even though forecasters thought it would be here by now--by 3 a.m., and it is now well after 4 a.m.--it still has not arrived.

That is fine with me.

Anyway, every weekend goes really quickly when you are like me, "working for the weekend" like I do.

Even right now, on Monday morning, I am thinking about the upcoming weekend.

When you have this mindset, little things stick out in your mind, and one little thing stuck out in my mind that happened yesterday evening.

My son worked all day yesterday, and when he has to put in a full day on Sunday, he is kind of "rewarded" with whatever he wants to eat when he comes home and it is dinnertime.

He wanted Burger King, his favorite fast food, so I went to get him exactly what he wanted prior to picking him up.

I prefer not to go through the drive-through--just one of my quirks, I admit it--so I went into the restaurant near his work, got what I wanted, and walked out.

As I was getting into my car, this fellow approached me on a bicycle.

He said, very politely, "Excuse me, sir," and I knew that I was in "trouble," so to speak.

"Can you spare some cash? I need my insulin shots, and I don't have any money to pay for it."

Normally, I would not have given him a thing, not a penny, because I think it is being an enabler to do something like this, allowing people to continue on in their lives like this without any direction.

But for some reason yesterday, I reached into my pocket, and told him, "Look, all I have is a little change," and I gave it to him.

He thanked me, rode away on his bike, and I saw him ride around the neighborhood as I left the Burger King parking lot and drove to Home Depot across the street to pick up my son.

Kinda weird, not just the situation, but my reaction to it.

I could have told him to go away, but I didn't, and I thought about the whole thing, and I still don't know why I gave him the money, albeit a very small sum.

Maybe there was the risk factor; if I didn't give him anything, would I be opening myself up to some type of verbal, or worse, physical altercation?

Maybe it was because deep down, I am a humanitarian, upset that a fellow human being was so down and out that he would ask me for some money to sustain himself?

Maybe it is because I, myself, am an idiot, and fell for his lies?

And when I thought about it, it was probably a combination of all three things.

I guess I do feel sorry for people in this situation, and yes, there was the risk factor to consider. I probably did fall for his lies, too.

But you know what? After I gave him the money, I felt good that I had done it.

I guess sometimes you have to be foolish, even though you know it is wrong, to make yourself feel good, and that is what happened yesterday evening.

So I guess I am, deep down, a humanitarian, even though for all I know, the fellow is using the money I gave him not for insulin, but some other type of "shot," if you get my drift.

But giving him the money fed my own ego too, so I guess it was something of a win-win, for both him and me.

So during Super Bowl Sunday, at least in my mind, I was the real winner, the real victor, the real deal.

Now, back to my own work, where pennies are really hard to come by ... .