Chutzpah

I was walking downtown around an hour ago. I saw a woman standing by a hot dog stand, holding a foil-wrapped dog that was already missing a few bites. As I walked by, she made eye contact with and began to ask a question in a low voice. Could I spare some money for a soda?

I was a little surprised, since the woman didn’t look like someone who asks strangers for money. Her clothes looked clean and relatively new.

You could argue that everyone deserves a soda with their hot dog. You could argue that if someone has a hard life, they deserve small indulgences like a hot dog. It just all seemed a little wrong, so I said I was sorry and walked on by.

UPDATE: I didn’t see Sonny’s post about Miriam’s Kitchen before publishing this one. I guess my anecdote provides some evidence for his contention that the poor, like most people, are not averse to high-calorie, high-fat snacks.