HIGHLIGHT (Thank you Auntie )

I called my aunt and asked her if she would be kind enough to help me by purchasing one outfit for my child (reason again, a missed child support payment) She said ok, but I want to buy two, however she then decided to buy four. This was the highlight of the week.

I would like to say that my aunt has dedicated herself to children and believes that every child should have. She sees a need that a child has and she addresses it immediately. She has shown a sign of compassion to me that I don't believe is rare in mankind. I believe most people except the really selfish and the mean care about children and would help them in any they can. I am so grateful to her she truly embodies the spirit of what I observed during my summers and visits to Virginia.

I remember both grandmothers that I have as being extremely giving. One memory that stands out for my aunts mother, my mothers mother, is having people always call and seek a kind word from her, one time I remember a prisoner calling who just wanted to talk to my grandmother. My mother also remembers families who would stay at the house of my grandparents becuase they did not have any place to go. My grandfather was always kind too. As for my father's family his father died when he was nine, but his mother was a giving women. The thing that stands out vivdly for me with this women is the knock on the door, which even though she is dead, my father lives there and the knocks continue. What the knock meant for me was that someone needed help most of the time it was money and I was always amazed my grandmother was always there to lend it out, even if the person was a repeat visitor who never paid back. Holidays were always important to her she had a gifts for the neighborhood under her tree. One time I even remember she gave my bike away to a neighborhood child that she said needed a bike.

These are the types of individuals that I was raised around and I thank God for them. However, I suppose what they did not prepare me for was that people were not the same and did not think alike. I remember my first incident of giving when I was making not much, at an art gallery where I was working and a lady came in with a beautiful baby and said that her baby required special milk and could I give her twenty dollars, of course ,I said and gave it to her and felt happy that I could help someone out. I was later teased as being stupid by someone who had observed this event, but honestly it was not about them it was about me. Finally can someone imagine their marraige breaking up over a dollar well I think my marraige never had a chance after a beggar in San Francisco asked me for a dollar and I gave it to him despite my husbands heavy handed no. Honestly there was no way I could say no because San Francisco had been very kind to me. My quest for a job was rewarded the first day and several days later I obtained a full time job. I had come to San Francico with literally ten dollars and had managed to find shelter, and a job in days. San Francico had extended a hand out to me.There was no way I could deny anyone a dollar if they asked.

It's all circular. Maybe if we run into people unwilling to give, we may need to contemplate that inside they may be miserable human beings who despite outer trappings never quite believe that life and society has been good to them, enough for them to give back to the world.