It was only a banana.

You know how you see those guys standing on the corner or at the freeway entrance with a sign that is asking for money/help/food?

Well, I see at least one every time I go into town. (Yes, I just said "go into town"--as I have been told before I live in a small village and going into the next bigger village is, to me, "going to town.")

Anyway I learned long ago not to give them money... I have been told you don't know if the money is going to drugs, alcohol, etc. or if they are just playing "homeless" to earn money (it happens).

When I was younger I remember my mom stopping by the grocery store and bought all of us some fried chicken from the deli... now, for us, that was quite a splurge at the time, and we were all very excited to get home to eat it. On the way home we saw a "homeless" man at the freeway entrance asking for money. My mom turned the car around and took him some of our fried chicken. Seems so simple, but it was a big deal to us, and I remember how happy we all were that we could feed him dinner. He seemed grateful and we felt good about helping in a way that we could.

Well, I saw a man asking for money/help at the grocery store parking lot entrance and I had grabbed a banana from my stash of groceries I had just bought because it was lunch-ish time and I was hungry.

I drove past this man and stopped to turn right onto the highway but, I rolled down my window and handed him my banana.

I felt kind of silly handing a banana out my window to a perfect stranger who wasn't asking for food but, it was my way of showing him a small gesture of human compassion, I guess.

He was so grateful saying, "Bless you. Bless you."

It was only a banana...