Cans for kids

Courtesy for the people struggling has been part of the ethical systems of all societies throughout the world since abstraction of the allocentric view was forged in the mind. Empathy moved out hominid selves to band together to fight the predators of the night and even to this day we remain through ethical institutions like legality, and religious institutions a coherent supra-organism called society. The written word itself symbolizes the unity of humanity in that through inert characters we find ourselves empathizing, imagining, identifying, and understanding with something not in the world but in the mind, the other's perspective.

Police posted across the busy street from my hotel protecting the interests of the tourists who populated Mexico City. There are no free rides for any citizens of the country and everyone you meet has overcome hardships of economic uncertainty, danger, violence, and the ever prevalent excess of illicit drugs. To escape from the difficulty many take to their work with assiduous effort. Many Catholics in the country live the true life of the creed of their savior honoring the Church with care for the under privileged with what they can, one might say true Christians. Things aren't always what they seem.

I started out of the tienda for my hotel room. Two young girls waited with the Policia in the dark of night looking for a way to fill their empty bellies. I reached into my pocket for my pack of cigarettes and lighter ready to fill my lungs with tar. One might say the inside of my lungs are paved. I situated myself on the curb across the street with the doorman of my hotel standing guard against the sucias manos of the masses of the unclean who might enter. Laughing and dancing in the light of the store the little girls charmed the police with silly words. Exhaling the smoke and examining the scene, I imbibed the nature of the world at play here. Mexico city, the capitol, had like any large urban setting the wandering vagabonds, addicts, and impoverished seeking a hand-up, a hand-out, a way to ease the suffering of a world that turned a blind eye. Both my eyes saw the clarity of the charity necessary to give the girls at least food fit for one day's worth of full stomachs, though my donation to their plight would not save them in the long term.

The pandemic engulfed the world and the small hands of the innocent walked the lonely streets of night faces uncovered risking the only thing they seemed to have left in the world. Any person with half a heart could see the ugliness that lurks in the corners of metropolis in a time of abundance so many line the alleys with so little. I again crossed the street to the store and this time I filled the little hands of the girls for one more night.