Two Women

I saw two women, one I am related too and one was a stranger. The one I am related too is strong and unwavering in her convictions. She has endured war, hunger and loss. Yet she has continued to live a very full successful life that she will without humility tell you is due to her own effort, intelligence and strength. She has no understanding of the psyche or emotions as they are weaknesses that if left to their own devises will make you weak. She is a mother and yet no confidences are shared with her because she has no empathy.

The other woman, a stranger standing on a street corner. I was stopped luckily on the opposite side at a very long light and so could be a unnoticed observer. She was the same age as the first woman, in her late 60's-70's. Dressed nice, clean, with a handbag hanging over one shoulder. The unusual part of this observation was that she was holding a cardboard sign with a begging message written across. I could tell that people who were stopped all appeared to be in a trance like observation. What the heck...grandma is a begging pan handler! She was the grandma to everyone at that intersection. A young man ran up to her and was talking while another man driving a late model big rig pulled over and gave her a fast food bag. Could we not feel the fear that this could be us!

Or as the first woman says, what a waste. Bad choices were made in her life, married wrong...didn't get an education...living on social security....raised her children to be losers like her....oh I have heard it all and it all has a ring of truth. But what about the story between the judgment. What about life sometimes giving you lemons and you don't have the emotional strength to make lemonade. What if the message she brings to everyone at that intersection is forgiveness, empathy, support and isn't her life worth the fact that she brings that message to us all. We need to extend a hand, we need to look the homeless in the eyes, we need to talk and treat each other as fellow human beings.

I hope I am a woman who has "some" of the traits of the first but has the strength of the second to stand on a corner and make the world think.