I have a couple of regulars who hit me up almost daily, and I am often in the position of your stranger, reminding them that I almost never use cash anymore and feeling sheepish about it. I take orders now though and am never far from a bodega that'll take a card. And on the off chance I have cash on hand, I'm quick with it. I've never been a rager, but the Trump era has certainly tested me. I think I have, for now, settled into a defiant and defensive empathy. It leaves me more satisfied than rage, for sure.
I’ve moved from rage (most days) to resignation. I don’t have the sway or the influence to change the general direction of the culture— I once thought I had platforms to attempt that: what a delusion that was — so instead I’m trying, like you, to make the little corner I occupy more kind and compassionate. Since I’m a gregarious but introverted misanthrope, it’s hard. But it’s tougher to be angry too much of the time. I’m not the praying type, but I do think about you and those of us in similar circumstances.
Boy, howdy. So many of us feel this way. I walk every day, but rarely have cash. I’ll give it when I do. Tommy, God bless him, always carries what he calls “walking tax,” the price of taking a walk in LFK. But to your larger point, I find myself becoming a bigger asshole than usual. I thought it was encroaching age, and the fact that I’m less disturbed by what others think of me. But reading your piece makes me think you’re on to something. I feel defeated, having spent so much of my life fighting FOR people like that man asking for change, and I now see that it was all for nothing. The bad guys won and I’m pissed.
My wife and I regularly give to a couple regular, local, homeless. Even when we don’t have cash with use, we always stop and talk to them. How are you? Are you dealing with the rain/cold/heat? Are you safe?
On the other hand, I’m often walking and listing to podcasts with my earbuds in my ears. When someone I don’t know gets my attention asks a question and I take out my earbuds, I’m pretty on guard. I often just say I don’t want to talk and walk on. Which guy am I?
I have a couple of regulars who hit me up almost daily, and I am often in the position of your stranger, reminding them that I almost never use cash anymore and feeling sheepish about it. I take orders now though and am never far from a bodega that'll take a card. And on the off chance I have cash on hand, I'm quick with it. I've never been a rager, but the Trump era has certainly tested me. I think I have, for now, settled into a defiant and defensive empathy. It leaves me more satisfied than rage, for sure.
I’ve moved from rage (most days) to resignation. I don’t have the sway or the influence to change the general direction of the culture— I once thought I had platforms to attempt that: what a delusion that was — so instead I’m trying, like you, to make the little corner I occupy more kind and compassionate. Since I’m a gregarious but introverted misanthrope, it’s hard. But it’s tougher to be angry too much of the time. I’m not the praying type, but I do think about you and those of us in similar circumstances.
Boy, howdy. So many of us feel this way. I walk every day, but rarely have cash. I’ll give it when I do. Tommy, God bless him, always carries what he calls “walking tax,” the price of taking a walk in LFK. But to your larger point, I find myself becoming a bigger asshole than usual. I thought it was encroaching age, and the fact that I’m less disturbed by what others think of me. But reading your piece makes me think you’re on to something. I feel defeated, having spent so much of my life fighting FOR people like that man asking for change, and I now see that it was all for nothing. The bad guys won and I’m pissed.
My wife and I regularly give to a couple regular, local, homeless. Even when we don’t have cash with use, we always stop and talk to them. How are you? Are you dealing with the rain/cold/heat? Are you safe?
On the other hand, I’m often walking and listing to podcasts with my earbuds in my ears. When someone I don’t know gets my attention asks a question and I take out my earbuds, I’m pretty on guard. I often just say I don’t want to talk and walk on. Which guy am I?
I don’t think you’re the guy who sounds like you’re giving a lecture, which is the thing that set me off. And again: I might have been wrong!