!
.
.
.
DISCLAIMER!
.
The story is based at local Morrisons at the centre of town.
.
However this is not in any way an attack on Morrison’s, they are in NO way responsible in my eyes for the privately held attitudes of individual members of staff.
.
I will happily shop there again,
.
BUT
.
It could have happened anywhere,
.
It is a true story that just happens to have happened at Morrisons in Redcar.
.
.
STORY START!
.
Last November 2018, I and my family stopped there to shop,
.
It was a bloody cold night and there happened to be a homeless man sitting crossed legged near (ish) the cash machines, begging.
.
My kids immediately asked if they could buy the man a hot chocolate,
.
(Because I try and teach my kids to give a dam for the world and the people in it!)
.
So after we have shopped I went to the instant drinks dispensing machine to get a hot chocolate for the cold homeless man outside.
.
But there are no paper cups, to put the hot drink in.
.
Now obviously I do have mental health issues and the thought that happened was probably a paranoid delusion in my own mind,
.
But at that time, the first thing I thought was, (wrong or right)
.
“Some bastard manager has taken away the paper cups to stop people buying the homeless man outside a hot drink until they can get him moved on!”
.
Again it was probably just me, being paranoid,
.
So because I am a truly stubborn little shit, I go to the party section and buy for 3£ 60p some paper cups.
.
I queue up at the tills and pay for them.
.
I get the Hot Chocolate and leave the rest of the cups there for others to use,
.
Then I go to the counter to pay for the hot chocolate,
.
The woman at the till overheard be talking to my kids about why we had purchased the hot chocolate,
.
The woman reaction was along the lines of,
.
<Obvious this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>
.
“Oh, he's not there now, he has been moved on.”
.
Our family expressed a minor disappointment,
.
Her reaction to that was,
.
<Again! Obviously this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>
.
“You should not buy stuff for him anyway,”
.
“He is a nuisance,”
.
“He was in here earlier and spent his begging money for fags,”
.
(For you Americans, that means he purchases some cigarettes.)
.
I felt a bit stunned at the passion of her negative reaction and just left peacefully.
.
.
FRENCH STEPS!
.
There is an old French expression, which I am not going to even attempt to write, but roughly translated it is,
.
“Spirit of the Stairway,”
.
It is an expression that means the following,
.
‘When you have nothing witty or cool to say at the time, but think of the perfect comeback comment much later, when it is too late to use it!
.
This is my “Spirit of the Stairway,”
.
This is what I wished I had said at the time,
.
“If you are cold and fed up outside would you not want to treat yourself?”
.
“After work, tonight are you not going to treat yourself to anything?
.
“Not a chocolate bar, or a TV soap opera?”
.
“A bubble bath or a favourite blanket?”
.
“Why can't someone give their morale a little boost and try and comfort themselves?!”
.
“Poor sods life must be bloody miserable in this weather!”
.
“What kind of monster are you?”
.
But I didn’t.
.
I wish I had,
.
But I did not.
.
.
EMPATHY IF NOT THE SAME AS GULLIBLE!
.
I am not an innocent, naive or stupid,
.
I know there is a good 60% to 70% chance that he actually has a home or is a drug user,
.
But I am not responsible for his actions,
.
I can only ever be responsible for my own!
.
Any degree of chance over 4% to my mind makes it worth a punt at trying to make this totally shitty world slightly better.
.
(For Americans, By Punt, I mean “Worth a Gamble”!)
.
If he is a lazy con man, then that is on him!
.
But as skint as I very often am,
.
(Translation for Americans, “Skint” = “Broke”)
.
I am still not going to begrudge a cold potentially homeless person a hot chocolate if I have the time and can spare the cash.
.
I am not so skint (yet) that such an action would financially “break me”
.
So it is worth a punt,
.
I am not ever going to make any big significant changes to our world,
.
Very few of us will
.
But we can all aim for a flow of little positive “Butterfly Effects”
.
And hope all the little good bits somehow add up to mitigate, offset or somehow reduce how our crap our world now is!
.
If we cannot let ourselves have faith enough to believe that,
.
Then why bother doing any recycling at all?
.
As this is a true story there is not a clever witty or smart ending.
.
All that is left is to declare in a loud voice,
.
.
We all deserve the occasional treat,
.
Even the homeless.
..
This is a true story,
..
DISCLAIMER!
.
The story is based at local Morrisons at the centre of town.
.
However this is not in any way an attack on Morrison’s, they are in NO way responsible in my eyes for the privately held attitudes of individual members of staff.
.
I will happily shop there again,
.
BUT
.
It could have happened anywhere,
.
It is a true story that just happens to have happened at Morrisons in Redcar.
.
.
STORY START!
.
Last November 2018, I and my family stopped there to shop,
.
It was a bloody cold night and there happened to be a homeless man sitting crossed legged near (ish) the cash machines, begging.
.
My kids immediately asked if they could buy the man a hot chocolate,
.
(Because I try and teach my kids to give a dam for the world and the people in it!)
.
So after we have shopped I went to the instant drinks dispensing machine to get a hot chocolate for the cold homeless man outside.
.
But there are no paper cups, to put the hot drink in.
.
Now obviously I do have mental health issues and the thought that happened was probably a paranoid delusion in my own mind,
.
But at that time, the first thing I thought was, (wrong or right)
.
“Some bastard manager has taken away the paper cups to stop people buying the homeless man outside a hot drink until they can get him moved on!”
.
Again it was probably just me, being paranoid,
.
So because I am a truly stubborn little shit, I go to the party section and buy for 3£ 60p some paper cups.
.
I queue up at the tills and pay for them.
.
I get the Hot Chocolate and leave the rest of the cups there for others to use,
.
Then I go to the counter to pay for the hot chocolate,
.
The woman at the till overheard be talking to my kids about why we had purchased the hot chocolate,
.
The woman reaction was along the lines of,
.
<Obvious this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>
.
“Oh, he's not there now, he has been moved on.”
.
Our family expressed a minor disappointment,
.
Her reaction to that was,
.
<Again! Obviously this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>
.
“You should not buy stuff for him anyway,”
.
“He is a nuisance,”
.
“He was in here earlier and spent his begging money for fags,”
.
(For you Americans, that means he purchases some cigarettes.)
.
I felt a bit stunned at the passion of her negative reaction and just left peacefully.
.
.
FRENCH STEPS!
.
There is an old French expression, which I am not going to even attempt to write, but roughly translated it is,
.
“Spirit of the Stairway,”
.
It is an expression that means the following,
.
‘When you have nothing witty or cool to say at the time, but think of the perfect comeback comment much later, when it is too late to use it!
.
This is my “Spirit of the Stairway,”
.
This is what I wished I had said at the time,
.
“If you are cold and fed up outside would you not want to treat yourself?”
.
“After work, tonight are you not going to treat yourself to anything?
.
“Not a chocolate bar, or a TV soap opera?”
.
“A bubble bath or a favourite blanket?”
.
“Why can't someone give their morale a little boost and try and comfort themselves?!”
.
“Poor sods life must be bloody miserable in this weather!”
.
“What kind of monster are you?”
.
But I didn’t.
.
I wish I had,
.
But I did not.
.
.
EMPATHY IF NOT THE SAME AS GULLIBLE!
.
I am not an innocent, naive or stupid,
.
I know there is a good 60% to 70% chance that he actually has a home or is a drug user,
.
But I am not responsible for his actions,
.
I can only ever be responsible for my own!
.
Any degree of chance over 4% to my mind makes it worth a punt at trying to make this totally shitty world slightly better.
.
(For Americans, By Punt, I mean “Worth a Gamble”!)
.
If he is a lazy con man, then that is on him!
.
But as skint as I very often am,
.
(Translation for Americans, “Skint” = “Broke”)
.
I am still not going to begrudge a cold potentially homeless person a hot chocolate if I have the time and can spare the cash.
.
I am not so skint (yet) that such an action would financially “break me”
.
So it is worth a punt,
.
I am not ever going to make any big significant changes to our world,
.
Very few of us will
.
But we can all aim for a flow of little positive “Butterfly Effects”
.
And hope all the little good bits somehow add up to mitigate, offset or somehow reduce how our crap our world now is!
.
If we cannot let ourselves have faith enough to believe that,
.
Then why bother doing any recycling at all?
.
As this is a true story there is not a clever witty or smart ending.
.
All that is left is to declare in a loud voice,
.
.
“PEOPLE ARE NOT THINGS!”
.
.
I hope that poor woman behind the counter manages to find some sort of soul in that dried up husk!
.
.
Because although we in the UK have more safeguards that a USA citizen would have
.
.
We are all still far closer to sleeping on the streets than most of you realise!
.
.
!
I hope that poor woman behind the counter manages to find some sort of soul in that dried up husk!
.
.
Because although we in the UK have more safeguards that a USA citizen would have
.
.
We are all still far closer to sleeping on the streets than most of you realise!
.
.
!
.
See also
.
.
.
.
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