"Could you spare some change for so I can catch the bus? Could you spare some--hey! At least look at me. Don't pretend you don't see me--I am a human being. Geeze..."
Normally I would have given him a buck or two, but I think the (miserly) influence and example of my friend discouraged me from even that simple act of charity. After carpooling back to the church parking lot, I dropped off my passengers, but an oppressive feeling of guilt was expanding within me. Finally overcome by embarrassment at my parsimony, I drove back to the Tian-tian parking lot in search of my mendicant friend, but to no avail. Hebrews 13:2 came to mind ("Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.") This verse, coupled with the particulars of the situation reminded me of a favorite country song:
There's a man standing on the corner
With a sign sayin "will work for food."
You know the man,
You see him every morning--
The one you never give your money to.
You can sit there with your window rolled up,
Wondering when the lights going to turn green,
Never knowing what a couple more bucks
In his pocket might mean.
What if he's an angel sent here from Heaven,
And he's making certain that you're doing your best
To take the time to help one another--
Brother are you gonna pass that test?
You can go on with your day to day
Trying to forget what you saw in his face
Knowing deep down it could've been his savin' grace;
What if he's an angel?
Then, the epiphany: "HE WAS AN ANGEL!"
Somehow after hearing my sudden divinely inspired insight, Alvin seemed less than convinced. Eddie, too, dismissed my theory with an incredulous, "Is JT serious?"
That Alvin and Eddie were less attuned to the beggar's angelic nature did not surprise me; nonetheless, I was perplexed by their adamant denials of the fact once I pointed it out to them. It all added up; it all made sense! He was an angel sent to test my generosity, and I had flunked, yet in spite of my best efforts, I was unable to persuade Alvin of this.
I wasn't sure which would have been worse: if I had failed some sort of divine, cosmic test and been found niggardly, or if my tightfistedness had prevented an actual human being from getting home on the bus. Inundated with guilt, I circled the parking lot once more in search of the beggar-angel, but he had vanished. I interpreted this as a sign that he had de-materialized, and was either back among the heavenly host, or was in another parking lot testing the charity of another hapless soul. Alvin, conversely, hypothesized that the man was in fact, just a man, who had either found enough money to purchase his fare, or was a hustler whose luck had run out in the Tian-tian parking lot, and subsequently moved on to another location. Alvin's suggestion is significantly less interesting and less Romantacized than my own, and would not make for very blogworthy material, so as per my custom, I excused his unenlightened ideas and charged ahead with my own thoughts.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Tonight, outside my my student Jeff's I was accosted by a man as I exited my Prius. My typical apprehensions about class consciousness and strangers who approach me after twilight were heightened by the fact that I was in Norwalk [see Danger Zone].
"My car ran out of gas and--do you think you could spare some change? I just need a couple bucks--just enough to get home..."
Hallelujah! The angel was back, back to give me a second chance. I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge, waking up Christmas morning after a damning visit by the Ghost of Christmas Future. Zealous to overturn my prior conviction, I handed over a few dollars to the man, and wished him well on his trip "home".
Vindication of my character: I am not heartless after all.
Vindication of my interpretation: this second visit by an angel confirms that the first mendicant was, in fact, a testing angel.
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