A Grown Man’s Tear
It’s been a few days since I saw this grown man wiping off his tears. A man in his late 40’s or early 50’s, at the gas station. A man who I have never met before, and probably will never meet again.
He was sitting in his incredibly beat-up maroon color SUV, and I mean it was probably worst looking vehicle that I have ever seen that is still on the road. Windshield cracked, head lights taped up, bumper falling off, very simply rigged up, paint peeling off, windows down, probably A/C isn’t working… a trailer was attached in the back, piled with all kinds of junk. A kennel caught my eye, 2 brown small dogs were inside the kennel with another brown dog stuffed animal inside. 2 larger dogs were in the back seat of the SUV, sticking their heads outside the window, panting. It was 95 degrees after all.
The man was sitting in his SUV, a big dude, you can tell by his face and shoulders. His arms were covered by tattoos, face was greasy and quite tanned. He was wearing a wife-beater navy blue shirt, the typical type of looks my parents would have told me to stay far away and never talk to.
We parked at the pump next to his. The whole time we were pumping gas, he sat in his SUV with all his windows down, staring into space. Not a sound was made, radio wasn’t on, he just sat there, and his dogs were also staying still. All I could hear was the dogs panting.
After we were done pumping gas, we pulled out the gas station. We were both quiet, I guess we were both thinking about that man. Within a minute, our vehicle made a sharp U-turn, my “pilot” said out of nowhere, “I need to turn around and give him some money. I just have the strong feeling he needs it way more than I do, and if I don’t, I will regret it!” I felt speechless. Even though I felt terrible seeing this total stranger at the gas station, I stopped at feeling bad for him. Granted I don’t have extra cash on hand to give away, but I didn’t really think about taking action to give him anything I could afford. A bottle of water, some food, anything. I stopped at feeling bad for him, like most people.
We parked at the same spot where we pumped gas, I could see that man through my window. He was still sitting still, staring into space, same position. My “pilot” went over and spoke to this man for a few seconds, gave him some money and came back. I saw that man immediately looked down, and started wiping his tears off his face. I wonder what was going through his head at that time.
We are too busy judging others by their looks, their clothes, their cars, their jobs or houses, we don’t know what others have gone through, what pain they have behind their bright smiles and Facebook-perfect lives. But one thing we could always do, is to be nice to others, give more than take, forgive more than holding grudge. Life is too short to be holding on trivial things.
