This was validated last week when I volunteered to ring the bell and coerce money out of people for the Salvation Army. I was stationed in front of Starbucks on a beautiful street with tons of foot traffic in Los Altos.
When I started at 3 it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was about 70 degrees and I was warm in a short sleeved shirt. I was worried that I would be bored, but I had a real entertaining time for the 4 hours I was there. This is mostly because I love to watch people and this was a particularly interesting type of people watching since everyone knew I was there and knew I was trying to make eye contact. In fact I caught myself laughing a few times as people did all they could to look natural as they took every means necessary to avoid me.
I was often surprised by the people who would actually smile back to me, acknowledge my presence, and donate money. But what I really enjoyed was watching how people acted when they got within about 50 feet. All of a sudden they would begin to lower their heads, search in their pockets, stare intently at their phone or anything they could get a hold of, and do anything to look like they didn't see me standing on the corner with a red apron on ringing a bell.
One of my favorite things to watch was people take really weird routes through the intersection to keep at least 10 feet away from me at all times. They would squeeze between parked cars, make a diagonal route across the intersection, or just walk in the gutter to avoid walking in front of me. I understand tho, my smiling face and bell ringing is pretty intimidating.
I also loved it when people walked by and gave me some excuse why they weren't donating "I've already donated a LOT to the cause. Believe me." Oh, I do buddy. Or they would say "I donated earlier today so..." to which I would respond by shaking my head with an "understanding" look on my face. I just think it's funny people feel the need to justify their actions to me.
In the end, I had a great time watching people and doing my best to spread the spirit of giving. And I realized for about the millionth time that you can't just judge a book by its cover.
On a side note, I am now officially half way done with law school. Yay for me.
2 comments:
I am proud to call you my friend. such a saint.
Glad to see a good-hearted guy in the world.
I'm guilty of many of the things you described-- I frequently avoid the bell ringers. It's not because I don't want to donate, but honestly I just don't want to donate to the Salvation Army.
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