A very moving Easter Sunday moment

[pap64]

So today Easter Sunday me and my parents witnessed a very rare and wonderful moment of human kindness.

We went to Walgreens to buy some last minute stuff for my students. When we entered there was a young, homeless man in the entrance, looking in pretty bad shape. When we finished our shopping we step outside and we see a priest and his two daughters giving him food, money, a drink and the most important thing; words of courage, hope and faith.

It was quite the scene. Everybody who was at that store saw the guy, but probably didn't notice him till they saw the priest helping him. And it was very selfless. The young man looked pretty dirty, had many scars and probably had diseases on him. But that didn't stop the priest from putting his hand on his shoulder and head.

This was a fascinating moment that everyone should have seen. We live in a time in which people put anger, uncertainty and fear above hope, optimism and faith. They start to believe that humans are no longer capable expressing those feelings to each other. This is helped by the media who show nothing but bad news for the sake of ratings. But once we see moments like this we finally realize, if briefly, that we can make a difference, that we do care for each other and that love can reign over all.

I took pictures of this scene with my celphone so I can show my students and everyone else in my life that we can be more than just creatures filled with anger, that even for a moment love can be stronger than any other feeling in the world.

[blackcauldron85]

That's a really nice story! I know for me, I don't really even say hi to strangers if we're both walking down the street- part of it is that I can be shy around people I don't know, and part of it is that growing up, I always heard not to speak to strangers...you just don't know who to trust these days. There are just so many people out there who want to hurt others or use others for their gain...

As far as giving money to the poor, a lot of people worry that they might not use the money for food- they might buy drugs or alcohol. I've heard some people say, though, that it doesn't matter what they buy with the money- just the act of giving them the money means a lot. Also, if one wants to help the poor financially, that person could buy and hand out restaurant or grocery story gift cards...

That was a very nice thing that the priest and his daughters did, and I hope it made a nicer Easter for that man!

[Escapay]

pap, that was a wonderful story and a great way for me to end my Easter Sunday. Thank you for sharing it with us. It reminded me of a Sunday edition of the comic strip "For Better or For Worse" that I always remember, even though I was really young when I first read it. The father, John Patterson, is walking in the rain down the street. He's on his way to lunch but a homeless man asks him, "Excuse me, sir, do you have a quarter?" John tells him, "No, but I'll buy you some lunch." He then takes the homeless man to a diner and tells him to get whatever he wants. The homeless man doesn't want much though, and he says he's fine with some soup and a roll. He thanks John and sits down to eat his lunch. John then leaves the diner and walks into this really nice-looking and probably expensive restaurant, meeting up with his boss and co-workers. The boss then says something like "Eat up, men! You never know if this will be your last meal!" He means it as a joke, of course, but there is an expression on John's face and the readers can tell that he's thinking of the homeless man.

Anyway, that particular comic always stayed with me and while I never had an opportunity to give a homeless person the same kind of generosity (one rarely, if ever, finds homelessness in suburbia), it's comforting to think that perhaps somewhere, someone else is doing it out of the goodness of their own heart.

albert

[a-net-fan]

Great story....thanks for sharing

[ajmrowland]

That was a great story.


The sad truth is that we are taught to fear people, as opposed to when we actually liked socializing.

Hurt people hurt people. There's a fact they don;t teach in school.

[Mickeyfan1990]

Beautiful story, Pap64!

[PixarFan2006]

Thanks for sharing that story with everyone on this board. It is not very common to have this sort of thing happen, especially with all the problems in the world right now.

[Disney Duster]

we can be more than just creatures filled with anger, that even for a moment love can be stronger than any other feeling in the world.

So wonderful. Beautiful story, but you showed how beautiful you think, hope, and feel, too.

I've been hoping for that, myself.

This world seems almost only excited or interested in bad things happening. We need to realize love and happiness are better, more powerful, and be excited to see them occur. This proved it, at least for a moemnt, as you said. And that's all we need, because moments can live forever in us. And you certainly helped make it so for others by taking pictures and spreading the story.

[pap64]

we can be more than just creatures filled with anger, that even for a moment love can be stronger than any other feeling in the world.

So wonderful. Beautiful story, but you showed how beautiful you think, hope, and feel, too.

I've been hoping for that, myself.

This world seems almost only excited or interested in bad things happening. We need to realize love and happiness are better, more powerful, and be excited to see them occur. This proved it, at least for a moemnt, as you said. And that's all we need, because moments can live forever in us. And you certainly helped make it so for others by taking pictures and spreading the story.

Thank you for the kind words. And thank you everyone for reading the story.

On Monday I told my students the story as well as show them the pictures I took. I think they were too young to understand what was going on, but they definitely saw that a moment of impact happened. In fact they all got up to look at the pictures closer and ponder upon the scene.

One of the things that terrify me the most is that people want to teach children to hate first than to love. Even things that start as an act of love is first taught through hatred.

I don't want to state names, but I've read of companies and parents that teach children their values by stripping them of their innocence, showing them the evils of the world head on and then filling their minds with hatred, so by the time they are teenagers all they have ever known is to hate.

Again, it just terrifies me that we seem to place anger, fear and hate so high up that we are willing to corrupt our children with it.

[Disney Duster]

If that really happens to children, that's horrible.

Innocence and believing that the world really is a good place where you cand everyone can be happy is important to be kept as long as possible. And of course you can always believe in it at any time in your life, if you try and hold on to it.

I've been thinking about how as we grow up, maybe so many bad things happen to us or so many things turn out bad, turn out less happy than we expected, that we just give up, and assume the worst or least happy or least good of everything in the world in our adult lives.

I bet you've though of that, too. It's sad.

Hm, maybe that was a little off-topic. Well, your story proves a lot of that is wrong, including those people who think badly of any people who are religious, too. It gives hope.