Give to everyone who begs from you; if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask them again. Do to other as you would them to do to you.
Luke 6:30-31
Sometimes when I drive towards the highway around where I live, I encounter an ethical question. A red light at the freeway entrance forces me to stop. A person under the highway overpass is waving a sign “Hungry. Anything helps!” Sometimes the person approaches each vehicle to make sure he or she is seen.
What should I do? In my mind, there are three options.
- Ignore the person.
- Acknowledge the person but do not give anything.
- Give.
For years, I opted for option 1. I would look ahead and pretend that person doesn’t exist. A few narratives run through my head and justify non-action. If I roll down the window, will that person attack me? Will I catch covid? What if the person spends the money on drugs and alcohol? If the adult is accompanied by a child, is giving going to enable the adult to exploit their child for money? And above all: What’s the point of helping one person, when there are thousands more?
I uncomfortably wished the green light would come sooner to rescue me from dread.
Recently, through, I started to give $5 or $10 if I carry the cash. I don’t know what inspired this change. It might have been to relieve my own guilt. It might have been the starfish story, where the woman chooses to throw a starfish back into the water one at at time even though there are many more. It might have been the quote from the bible: “Give to everyone who begs from you.”
The biggest motivation is perhaps to fight my own mind, and its tendency to create stories and project outcomes. It’s a fight for my freedom and not let the chatter in my mind dominate my choices. The possibility of me getting hurt or sick from interacting with the person is 0.0000001%. If that $10 can fill that person’s belly for the day, or get a drink of water desperately needed, that benefit outweighs the risk. The upside is far greater.
All I can do in this situation is to give that person a small option, let go of the outcome, and wish for the person find a better path forward. Once the money changes hand, it’s up to that person to choose what he does with it.
I would have preferred that option if I were in that person’s situation.