"Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward".
Despite what this verse says, I will tell a story I have never told:
It was the first week of school: Thursday, 6th of August, 2015. Mum needed to pick up brother so she dropped me off at the overpass to walk home. It was about 4:00pm; cars rushed beneath the overpass while it was deserted up top, except for one beggar.
My family does not do much giving. Dad is all talk and no action. He is the greatest preacher of hunger, war, and global warming, rambling on and on at the dinner table, yet the most gluttonous, prejudiced, and wasteful of us all. Mum is more silent on the matter of poverty, since she does not have a career of her own. I have never seen my parents give. When we passed by beggars, dad tugs me along with words of pity while holding onto his "you win or you lose" philosophy.
Before the day I walked that overpass, I used to ponder. If my parents are not around to restrain me, what will I do for these unfortunate people? Will I give heartily as I always wanted to? Or will I walk on by like my parents did? More still, what if the money is of my own labour and pain? It is easy to give something that is not mine, but will I be able to give away money of my own?
So it was time to find out.
I stopped three meters from him and considered how much I should give. Then I snapped to my senses and asked myself: why am I withholding? Somebody is in need here! I rummaged my backpack for every note and coin there is. Surely I must have something, and after having searched my bag inside out and upside down, I confirmed that I only had one hundred baht.
Call me stupid, or gullible, but if anyone is willing to sit all day on a dirty overpass for a meager donation, I say that person is desperate enough to receive some help. His right hand was a stump. He held up to his forehead and I put the hundred into his cup. Then I left the overpass.
That ought to have settled my unease, having proven myself capable. But on my way home I just got upset. All I could think was "I only had one hundred baht". If only I had more to give. Why did I not have more to give? What did I spend it on? Nothing, really. I spend forty baht a day for lunch at school, and that is all.
The very next day I stopped having lunch. At least that is what I can do as a student. And as far as health goes, it has not killed me.
At home we work by a "when you need more" basis. Mum always gives me more than I need, two hundred baht a week and one thousand baht for trips. I tell her honestly that I still have money, but she stuffs it in my hand anyways, and I usually end up returning them all at the end of the year. But this time I add all the money to an envelope written "Yi Ting physics" (that envelope is another story to itself. A couple months ago I donated a total of 1,500 to help the Nepalese earthquake recovery 2015 from my talent show and science fair prizes).
By November I had accumulated a little over five thousand baht. When Habitat for Humanity came around, I did not withhold. I gave the whole envelope away. In December when the donation for Northern Thai hill tribes came around, I did not withhold and gave my one thousand.
It was the first week of semester two: Wednesday, 6th of January, 2016. Mum needed to pick up brother so she dropped me off at the overpass to walk home. It was about 4:00pm; cars rushed beneath the overpass while it was deserted up top, except for one beggar.
It had been exactly five months since, and he is still there. I did not withhold and gave my two thousand baht.
So I thought of this story because of the recent "Asia Cold Snap" (East Asia Cold Wave January 2016). It is a real thing. Having lived in the tropics all our lives, the cold was utterly unbearable. Temperatures can go as low as fifteen degrees Celsius on that open-air overpass. I hope the two thousand helped him through.
And never mind that I lost my "reward" telling this story, because it is more important that you know. It is possible to give, even when you think you have nothing to give. I have a serious lack of "practical smarts" but over the course of one year, I gave away a total of 10,000 baht. That is a lot, especially for a jobless, not-so-street-savvy seventeen year old.
You have the power to give. You do.
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