Doing the Small Stuff

I helped a brother outside of my job get his car started after dozens of people had passed him by. Although I had one of my good outfits on, I didn’t mind the greasy hands to help him and his pregnant girlfriend get out of the weather. The cat I helped was so glad someone finally stopped that he tried to pay me. I couldn’t take his money. I try to help people out of jams like that when I can. I figure that’s all a part of trying to be a decent guy. That scenario got me thinking about by so many guys drove right pass the man. I think it’s because we are too busy trying to live up to this larger than life definition of manhood the media has trapped us into. We are so busy trying to shine that we can’t even take pleasure in the little things that make the community a little easier to live in. What good is all that climbing going to do if we can’t help a brother out? Besides, we are not all going to get a Masters degree, or move to the suburbs, or send our kids to private school. There is going to be a whole lot of us spending our lives in the same old hood. You better start lending a hand to one another and making the best of it. Do traffic duty at the school. Drive the elderly lady down the street to the supermarket. Put up a basketball for the kids in the neighborhood or show them how to build things and use their hands like my grandpa used to do. That is every bit as manly as having a big bank account or driving a Benz. Plus, when people speak of you in high regard there will be no greater sense of pride than that. That’s really all we can do to work through this foolishness.