Over my long life, now extending into six decades, I have met all kinds of people from all over the world.  I've met some really terrible people in my life.  I mean, the kind of people you would rather stay as far away from as humanly possible.  On the other hand, I have met some of the most wonderful people on earth as well.  Salt of the earth type people as it were.  They both come from all types of backgrounds, ethnicity, religious faith and what have you.  It just demonstrates you can meet a variety of different people regardless of their place in life.  I've met people who would give you the shirt off their back.  Still others I have met would try to steal the shirt off of your back.   What this is all leading up to is an incident at a local fastfood restaurant I personally witnessed this past Wednesday.  It was after the lunch crowd, about 2:30PM and before the kids got out of school.  So, it was slow.

I was sitting down enjoying my chicken sandwich and lemonade.  I noticed a homeless man shuffle into the store with some change in his hand.  I guessed he had been panhandling and the day had not gone well for him.  His old, ragged clothes appeared clean, however.  That was what really caught my attention.  How did he manage to do that, I thought.  He asked the young clerk at the order register if he had enough to buy one chicken sandwich.  She told him, no sir, you need 27 cents more for the sandwich.  He was about to turn around and leave when a stranger came up behind him.  I could not understand what this man in a nice beige suit said to the homeless man.  The beige suit made an order to the clerk.  I was intrigued now.  Both the beige suit and homeless man both waited at the order table, apparently making small talk.  After about 10 minutes, a restaurant worker came out with a huge tray of sandwiches that this particular franchise made.  They were carefully placed in a sack, along with another sack of french fries.  Both sacks were then placed in a large sack so the man could carry them out.  But, not before he was given two huge liter soft drinks to take with him.  The homeless man thanked the beige suit man profusely and, yes, tears came from his eyes.

I never did find out who the stranger was in the beige suit.  He got his order, left in what appeared to be a brand new BMW.  Yes, he was rich and could have afforded to probably buy out all the food in the store if he had wanted to.  But, the way this story ends is not with this rich man in the beige suit.  It ends with the homeless man.  He took all those sandwiches and distributed them to the many homeless people living in a shanty town about a quarter mile from this fastfood restaurant.  Did this rich man in the beige suit know he was going to take those sandwiches to all those homeless people?  I don't know.  Maybe he asked the homeless man if he would do just that before he placed the order.  I'm just guessing at that. But, some poor, homeless people, just for a brief moment, got to taste a bit of luxury we all take for granted each day.