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I’m being lazy this year… this is my virtual Christmas card to everyone!!!!

So…. with an unprecedented amount of opinions generated by my last post, I feel I have to do a follow-up post. I can’t have everything thinking Ryan is a horrible person. I mean, he puts up with me, for example. That must make him a hero! Plus, I can’t have everyone thinking I am being Miss High and Mighty… I have my own personal issues with giving money to the homeless, and all I really wanted was for Ryan to have some accountability. But in any case I think God is trying to tell me to stop being such a pessimist. Not even a day after I called Ryan a cheater and tight-wad… well… this is what happened the very next day:

I was really wanting some pho for lunch. It was getting cold, and cold weather always makes me want to eat some hot soup… so we decided to go to the Tenderloin, where the best pho in SF is. Now, if you have ever been to the Tenderloin, you know what it’s like there. Not exactly the place you take your grandma for lunch, ya know… (unless she loves pho too) so we find a parking space and right there was a bum, sitting on the sidewalk leaning on a random wall, reading the paper. He had his backpack of stuff sitting next to him. Wasn’t asking for money or anything. Ryan gives him a dollar. The guy was quite gracious and says thank you. A real thank you. You know what I mean. A genuine, authentic thank you. I have to tell you, I have given food to many people, and they don’t often say thank you at all, let alone a genuine thanks.

Later that day we went to Union Square for the Macy’s Christmas Tree Lighting, and, of course, being the tightwads that we are, we hate paying for parking, so we park in the Tenderloin/Theater District and walk over. Over the 4 or 5 block span we saw maybe 3 bums, panhandling. I think Ryan handed out at least 2 or 3 dollars, all to different guys. (side note - I don’t think I’ve seen a single woman panhandling in SF. In Berkeley I used to see a couple regulars outside Cheeseboard but for some reason men seem to be the majority of the ones asking for money. I wonder why. I mean, there’s gotta be a lot of women who are homeless too, right?? Maybe I need to some some homework on this.) Anyway, back to my story, after the lighting Ryan gave the last dollar in his wallet to a guy selling Street Spirit (the free publication they ’sell’ for donations). The Street Spirit dude was really nice, and even gave us information on the hostels in the area (we were in front of a hostel, musing to ourselves aloud whether there were others nearby and he chimed in)…

I have to say I think that this charitable fitness just needs more exercising… just as I obviously need some exercise in optimism (and at the gym too!). I don’t know if Ryan would admit it but I think his experiences that day might have tipped him in favor of more charitable giving.