Gypsy Woman with Baby
Modigliani
I am not writing about paintings today although I do love Modigliani's paintings. I love people paintings.
Yesterday, I was running to the grocery store for dogfood and the weather was about to bust loose. Instead of going to Publix, my grocery of choice, I went the closest route to Kroger. Long story short, as I was leaving there was a girl, a gypsy girl, a Romanian gypsy girl holding a cardboard sign of hunger. Pushing the stroller front and back and front and back, the baby was a boy with chubby legs and bare feet. The girl was young and had fire red hair. I pushed my cart passed her, smiled and hurried to the car before it rained. I put my few groceries in and looked back just as the manager was waving her away from the entrance. My mother's voice in my head said, don't give her money she is a con artist, the baby is a prop, she will just buy alcohol or drugs. I reached in my wallet and pulled out my cash and ran to catch her and when I handed her the money she said God Bless You. I looked into her black eyes as my head was saying don't look at the baby, don't look at the baby. I went back and sat there in my luxury car and put my designer wallet back in my designer purse feeling guilty of my things. My things that I married into on that day 33 years ago. I was thinking so what if she buys alcohol so what. I did not reach into my pocketbook and pull out money specifically for her to buy food for her baby. I gave because I could. I give because I can. No strings attached. It is not up to me to label her or to assume the worst of her. I defied that negative voice in my head, and that felt good.
2 comments:
Anytime we can defy that negative voice in our heads is a time we need to bow in honor to---no matter what it is about. As far as compassion and generosity go, if we are judged by others for that, so be it, I'd rather be judged for that than anything else. In her day, no matter what they say, I'd have to believe you brought a sense of mirabilia or miracles and wonders.
An act of pure kindness comes only from the heart, the heart that in so many of us "modern" folk has become jaded with the ills of the world. You were very kind to help her, Dena, regardless of her motivation.
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