photo courtesy of crabshack
Freedom Parkway and Boulevard- across from this amazing Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial sculpture.
I’ve often seen homeless people on this corner- it was the corner that inspired this project.
A well- groomed man, about 40, was walking along the trodden grass as cars stopped at the light. He held out an old Dunkin’Donuts cup. Cars were backed up- it was noon and people were out and about. Since I saw him in advance, I rolled down my window so when he got to me he’d stop. I picked my phone off the passenger seat and placed the lunch there.
“Hi- I have a lunch if you haven’t eaten yet,” I offered, my hand on the bag. He hesitated, and looked around in my car. I got the impression he was hoping for cash instead. I gave him an out, saying something about maybe he’d already had lunch. “Yeah, thanks anyway, I’m not hungry, I already ate,” he said. “Well Good luck,” I replied and he walked off. I was sort of stunned for a second, and was about to roll up the window, when he came back and said, ‘Hey, I changed my mind. I could have it for dinner.”
Second thoughts — glad we have ’em. They save us so often from the snap decision that fires when we’re suprised by an unexpected outcome. :D Thanks for this post, Claire.
You know, that’s a really interesting topic: I wonder about the psychology of second thoughts, second chances, etc. So often the first choice is a ‘snap’ one: we have to live life ‘on the fly’. But our stubbornness usually means that we don’t take second thoughts on the current situation, I think – we’re more likely just to chalk it up to experience, and shoot for ‘next time’.
Life is relentless. But when we do get a second chance, there’s something of the mercy we attribute to the divine, right there.