Saturday's Dollar

Making my way to Barton Springs Nursery...290 frontage >> Mopac North. Exit 360 N and wait. and wait. Waited three times at this light before the homeless guy finally made his way down to me. Holding a sign that reads "lear jet out of fuel" he walks slowly past me. I don't pay much attention since I have seen him and his sign regularly for the two years I have been driving this way.

But on this day, as I inch my way closer to the light to wait yet again, I notice a second man is walking back up the line. His back is to me but his hunched appearance softened me a little as I watched him. He was bent over at a slight angle, and was making his way slowly back to the front of the line of cars. It was already scorching hot for May and he looked tired although it was early in the day. I'm only about 4 cars from the front now as he turns and I could read his sign: "Homeless Vet - With Family - Needs help" or something of that nature. He smiled at me as he turned, and I smiled back. Then, for what seemed like an eternity, I compared our lives.

Fearing the light would change too quickly now, I started searching for money. Whew, I found a dollar. As I rolled down the window, he approached, and with my right hand I handed him a dollar through the window. He leaned in and paused, with each of us holding an end of the bill, and said "Thank you for having a heart" and pulled away. I was stunned. I sat there a little frozen. thank you for having a heart echoed in my brain over and over until my eyes filled up with tears. I felt so bad that I had used my right hand, the one without my wedding ring, to hand him that dollar. Not to mention the fact that I had another dollar somewhere that I kept. Plus I was on my way to buy stuff I probably didn't really need. If he only knew that I DID have a heart, but what I did wasn't really an act of it. The feelings of guilt were strong for a while, and I thought of this encounter the remainder of the afternoon. Something in that man's eyes I won't soon forget, and something about his words I'll remember forever.