This lunchtime I went off for a carefree wander. Mainly to get a bit of daylight because at this time of year we don’t get many hours of light this far north. So off I went for an hour’s dose of UV. I happened to wander into one of my favourite music shops: Fopp. It tends to carry more eclectic, harder to find music than the usual high street stores. So I thought I’d have a browse.
And there I was, right at the back of the store looking through a back catalogue of Soundgarden when I sensed a ‘presence’ to the left of me.
A woman stood staring intently at me before thrusting a leaflet at me.
At first I thought, perhaps she was an employee passing out some kind of promotional leaflet for the store, perhaps related to the upcoming Christmas period. I was mistaken.
She was actually begging, and the slip of paper she had passed to me bore a photocopied message stating she was a poverty stricken mother of four with no job and no money and no home. She still held a clutch of these slips in her hand, carefully prepared.
The first thing that struck me, after getting over the shock of being accosted inside a reputable store by a beggar, was the aggressive way she approached me. Also the fact that she had an expectant air as she then held her hand out expecting money.
Surprise turned to suppressed anger, as I politely told her in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t getting any money out of me and to please leave me alone. A lone mother of four would, for a start, be on all sorts of child benefits from the UK state, would be housed in emergency accommodation, and by no means should be walking the streets, let alone a shop store asking for money.
She didn’t move. I turned my back on her and continued to browse.
A moment later, she said “Excuse me.. excuse me…” so I turned around again and she thrust her hand straight up in front of me with a beckoning movement. ‘Give me money’ she motioned.
Anger turned into utter disbelief.
What right did she have to hassle my personal space and demand money out of me?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a scrooge, I am not mean spirited – I donate to charities, and when I’ve seen girls out on the street looking rough on cold, wet nights, I’ve done the bleeding heart and given them money.
I’ve been down on my luck in the past too, and know how it feels to wonder how I’m going to make £10 last me an entire week. I appreciate rough times and how it can be.
What I do not appreciate is aggressive begging, and someone standing there who believes they will get something for nothing simply by being a bully.
So, biting my lip, with equally aggressive body language, I said in measured, cold, clipped tones, ‘Go Away and Stop Hassling Me’. She stood firm, I was blocked in a corner, so then I moved towards her waving my hand saying in mocking terms ‘Bye.. Bye… ‘ I had my back up against the wall and I was riled.
She took the hint and left.
First I felt guilty, then quite shaky. I couldn’t even concentrate on the music I’d been looking at – my little Zen bubble had completely popped.
I took a deep breath and put things into focus.
Why should I feel guilty for protecting my own space? And simply because someone is down on their luck, does not give them the inalienable right to walk up to you and demand money and get it.
A little politeness goes a damned long way in this world, and she was anything but polite.
Dear God
Tags: article, commentary, discussion, journal, social, writing
In 1986 the new wave UK band XTC released a song called Dear God. The song’s lyrics carry an anti-God sentiment which caused a little bit of a hoo hah in the US amongst more conservative Christian groups because of the lyrics which could be interpreted as atheistic or dystheistic. I listened to the song again last night after an absence of probably a good 10, 15 years. And it struck me that in those days a song like that could be played on the radio airwaves, and perhaps create some air of dissent but that would be the end of that.
These days? I have a feeling it wouldn’t even make it to the play list. Not because the lyrics are particularly sensitive… they’re actually quite tame, but because of the station’s fear of reprisals from over reactive fundamentalist groups.
A personal perception is that the world as a whole, not just the good ol US of A, has become so much more reactive to issues of religion combined with politics.
And that’s the key issue.
In days gone by, secularism was the norm, with religion kept separate from state. They were not combined. Combining them is a recipe for disaster. Because government and law should be based on logic, reason and debate. Not faith. Faith is when you give up thinking and simply believe in something because someone else told you ‘this is the right thing to do’.
And well, isn’t it a wonderful relief not to have to think about actions when you have a directive from ‘God’?
The thing that scares me the most is that certain powerful administrations are currently under the influence of people who base their opinions on ‘faith’ – their ‘belief’ that a course of action is the right one to take.
Not because they have made a reasoned, informed, logical approach to a problem based on collated information presented to them in reports and through experienced advisors… but because their religion has a say in how they think. They believe something to be the right course of action rather than thinking it is the right course of action. And in one particular case, it is rumoured that decisions were made because God, personally ‘told’ said powerful political leader, to take that course of action.
And that scares me. Because when you stop thinking for yourself based on gathered, up to date information, and take unilateral decisions based on faith alone, then you go back to a world of fear based on ignorance.
And in a world of instantaneous information through the touch of a button via the world wide web and mass communication, that concept is almost unthinkable. But the unthinkable happens on a day to day basis. Usually because someone refuses to think.