There's Narratives, There's Dollars, and There's Dreams. But Then There's a Dollar

I go to work to earn a dollar almost every day. Yesterday, one class discussed reading non-fiction and ways to approach a literacy experience with K-12 youth and the other shared personal narratives and workshopped/peer-conferenced on what they brought to class.

Storytelling, as a result, was on my mind all day...so much so that I also included Abu and Lossine's TedTalk as part of my courses because, well, hearing them tell their story is a once and a lifetime experience. We all have beginnings, middles, and ends...we are storied creatures.

Perhaps that's why this dollar story of the day happened to catch my attention. I'm not used to carrying cash, so when a man came up to me at the gas station while I was pumping money onto my credit card and asked for a dollar, I responded, "Sorry. I don't have one. I only have plastic." He had many bags, was in his 60s I guessed, and a little frazzled. I watched him walk away and move to the other cars. Most were not polite in their response: cussing at him and shutting their windows. I watched the man walk over to the curb, sit down, and simply put his face in his hands. He was very upset about something.

I finished putting unleaded in the Hulk and reached in my pocked to put my card away. I felt what I thought was a receipt in my jeans, but it ended up being a dollar. I knew it wasn't meant for me, but for him, so I hopped across the street and gave it to him. His sincerity and thank you was 100% honest. Something was going on with him. "I need 50 cents more to catch the bus home," he responded. "I have all these bags."

I don't know where he was coming from or where he was going. It's not my nature, either, to give out money to strangers, but this felt right.

A dollar. A person in need.

I knew, too, was going to co-present with Abu and Lossine, telling their relocation stories and addressing global realities where 20% of the world make less than a dollar a year...another 30% makes about $8 a year. Puerto Rico is happening. Texas and Florida, too. Mexico's earthquake. India's floods. Genocides in Myanmar and largest refugee populations the Earth has ever known. For a second, that dollar did someone some good. I am trying to help out elsewhere, too...more substantially.

This isn't the greatest story, but one that crossed my mind yesterday. The busy life often distracts us from the many narratives that are constantly being written: comedies, dramas, tragedies, and abstract.

And with that, I'm off to Avon Farms (runner up to hosting the dining hall scenes for Harry Potter) to do professional development with teachers for the day. And we're off!