Single Story
Don’t Look Twice but Think Once
Traveling makes a person wiser, asking questions makes a person richer but placing judgment, without sufficient knowledge, is like burning a book before reading it and claiming that we didn’t like it.
I remember how harshly I judged a man without knowing his story and after learning it; I have never felt more ashamed. I passed him on my way to school, I always walked the same route and he always sat on the same bench in the park. He was homeless, middle-aged and dirty. I would give him a careful, quick glance and noticed that he didn’t have much, just a couple of plastic bags filled with clothes and a blanket. He never bothered me and I never felt that I wanted to talk to him. I assumed in my head he was homeless, because he might have been an alcoholic or a lazy bum. One day, walking the same old road to my school, the bench that he always sat on- was empty. The following day it was still empty and it stayed that way for weeks. I started to wonder where this man went and felt weird how a stranger that at first made me feel somehow uncomfortable, now made me feel even more uneasy and just because he was not around. The man, this dirty, homeless man- his name was Tadeusz. He was homeless because he lost his job. He was homeless because he had to sell his house. He had no place to go because his eight-year old daughter died of cancer and his wife left him. I know all of this because Tadeusz died and that put him on the front cover of my local newspaper. After reading his story I felt ashamed for having judged him so harshly without knowing his story. It was bad enough that I never stopped to ask him if he needed help or offered him something to eat, but worse than that, I looked down on him. It didn’t occur to me that there was a man inside of this “homeless” exterior; a person with dreams, memories and hopes. I hope to live the rest of my life avoiding such ill-considered judgments.
Traveling makes a person wiser, asking questions makes a person richer but placing judgment, without sufficient knowledge, is like burning a book before reading it and claiming that we didn’t like it.
I remember how harshly I judged a man without knowing his story and after learning it; I have never felt more ashamed. I passed him on my way to school, I always walked the same route and he always sat on the same bench in the park. He was homeless, middle-aged and dirty. I would give him a careful, quick glance and noticed that he didn’t have much, just a couple of plastic bags filled with clothes and a blanket. He never bothered me and I never felt that I wanted to talk to him. I assumed in my head he was homeless, because he might have been an alcoholic or a lazy bum. One day, walking the same old road to my school, the bench that he always sat on- was empty. The following day it was still empty and it stayed that way for weeks. I started to wonder where this man went and felt weird how a stranger that at first made me feel somehow uncomfortable, now made me feel even more uneasy and just because he was not around. The man, this dirty, homeless man- his name was Tadeusz. He was homeless because he lost his job. He was homeless because he had to sell his house. He had no place to go because his eight-year old daughter died of cancer and his wife left him. I know all of this because Tadeusz died and that put him on the front cover of my local newspaper. After reading his story I felt ashamed for having judged him so harshly without knowing his story. It was bad enough that I never stopped to ask him if he needed help or offered him something to eat, but worse than that, I looked down on him. It didn’t occur to me that there was a man inside of this “homeless” exterior; a person with dreams, memories and hopes. I hope to live the rest of my life avoiding such ill-considered judgments.