Monday's Advice For World Happiness: Show Tale-Yax Some Respect!

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 

of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

--Matthew 25:40

Living in NYC is a great place to come to the reality that not everyone has everything.  Some people have no home.  Some have no family.  Some have no luck.  Some have no intelligence.  Some have no sanity.

Not a day goes by where I am not pulled out of my little bubble by a homeless person.  Whether by sight, or unfortunately more often, by smell, I am well aware that the homeless are a fact here in this concrete jungle.  Sleeping in cardboard boxes, panhandling the trains, or even worse, I've even seen them shoeless, near death in their own feces, right in the doors of a Cathedral! Further, not a day goes by where I am reminded by those oh so helpful MTA announcements that it is illegal to give to them and that if I really wanted to help I'd donate to the many organizations who serve that population.  Imagine that -- ILLEGAL TO GIVE -- unless it's to a corporation!  What a bunch of bull!  Then there are the overheard conversations as to whether or not some particular panhandler is being honest -- or just being crafty -- gaining monies and sympathies for their drug habits or perhaps as a sly way to avoid paying taxes! The bottom line is: Most people avoid this population like the plague -- and even worse, feel quite right in doing so!

And perhaps this is why I found it so horrific to read that most recently a homeless man saved a woman in Queens from an attacker, but then was attacked himself, left to bleed to death on the street of stab wounds, as over 20 some people passed him laying in his own blood on the sidewalk.  Don't believe it? WATCH IT BELOW!




And you wonder why we can't have world happiness? Perhaps it's because to this day, in 2010, we all decide who it is that we feel is "worthy" of our respect, of our help, of our time.  We sit in silent judgment as we guesstimate how much someone deserves something we do for them.  We jump to conclusions not because they are right (can they ever be?) but because they are simply easier, less involved, less confronting.  Afterall, we want to be "fair".  We don't want to be enablers.  We want to be "Just". The list goes on.

The truth is, that homeless man saved a woman that night.  He had a name: Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax.  And countless people passed by him, perhaps thinking to themselves all too easily that he was just another inebriated drunk, or a druggie they shouldn't touch.    I wonder, what ever happened to the virtue of being a Good Samaritan -- and simply responding when you saw a need -- regardless of the conditions??? Regardless of the reasons for the need? What happened to the "Oh my there is a man laying in the middle of the sidewalk, let me help him!"

A woman in Queens lived because a stranger responded. That woman was 5'3 --- just like me.  Walking home from what was most likely a fun, but late night out.  Just like I do many nights a year.  She escaped her fate because some stranger, some homeless gent, had the human decency to respond.  No questions asked.  No hesitation.  And he surely could have found a good excuse not to help, right? I mean he could've thought that she could have been a 'rich little miss' who deserved to be attacked.  He could've thought that she shouldn't be walking alone so late and was probably one of those gals just too cheap to get a cab.  He could've thought that the woman would look down on his kind and probably wouldn't give him a buck if her life depended on it, so why bother? He could've thought that "that is probably her boyfriend".  He could've assisted her attacker!  But he didn't.  He didn't hesitate as to what he should do. Rather, he simply did the right thing. The human thing.  The caring thing.

The real Truth is,  none of us really earn our good.  Even the hardest working, brightest cookies in the bunch owe some of their success to luck.  Really!  If you are not homeless, not on drugs, not destitute, have family, have a home -- well you are very, very lucky.  If you are ALIVE you are lucky, right?  And even if you say that you work for all of  this -- and damn hard too -- well what gave you that work ethic? Those smarts? Your Sanity? You didn't create yourself, did you?  Oh sure, we can all convince ourselves that we Darn Well Deserve everything good we've got!  But if we go there we better be ready to say we deserve all the negative things too!  LET'S BE HONEST.  There are a whole host of factors involved that enable someone to become a responsible, sane person fit for society. And even more that enables someone to be successful.  It's not all your own doing.  And everyone is not so lucky in this regard.  Furthermore, you can never tell who is gonna be there for you in your time of need, or when that time of need will be.  I have a feeling that if each of us would put ourselves to the same level of decency as that homeless gent, we'd be a much happier people.  A much happier world. Possibly even, a Blessed world.

Here's wishing you a Happy Monday.  How about we all show some kindness, compassion, acceptance and care towards our fellow humans today -- even the ones we don't think deserve it;  even the one's we don't like -- or the one's we think should change; or even, the one's who don't smell good.  And for Christ's sake, break the "MTA Law" and give readily to those asking right to your face for whatever reason they have!  And then, go give to a charitable organization TOO!  Let's give it a try in the name of NY's most recent hero, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax.

Cheerio!

Madame B.