Day 129

First day of work today. It went well; unions have a certain air of camaraderie to them. And the money is good.

On the way home I stopped by the harbour to take in some of the ocean breeze. A girl my age approached me candidly with a a request that I listen to a pitch about why I should donate to a cause. "Have you got a moment for Unicef?" she asked.

"Unicef? I'll pass. Thanks anyway." My response was polite, but terse. She was a very pretty girl; she had brown hair, no makeup, and an outgoing disposition to her.

About three paces of mine later she called out "Have you got a reason?" In a tone still friendly, but also more honest and forward than one would ever expect from a stranger, even a solicitor. I was taken aback on account of this, and on account of the fact that I take pride in having real reasons for the things that I do (even if the reasons are bad, self-awareness counts for something). So I turned around and walked back a pace.

"Yes. I'm a selfish person, that's the reason. I want to keep my money more than I want to give it to other people, even if they are starving." I owed her the return favour of equal honesty. She smiled, and having taken the cue that I wasn't afraid of criticism, she responded "You know that's a pretty shitty reason."

"It's a perfectly good reason. It is a pretty shitty justification, however."

"Well, thanks for your honesty. People usually just tell me they can't afford it."

"...We all know that's never true in a place like this."

"Exactly."

Another smile was exchanged, and I departed.

Truth be told, my only regret wasn't not donating, but was the fact I didn't ask for her number. She was exactly my type. The odds she'd have given it to me were nearly nil, which is fine, but there are few things I regret more in life than when my lack of confidence prevents me from taking a free bet on a great prize.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think that these "NGOs", Uniceft, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, purposefully recruit good-looking left-wing liberals to be there canvassers to lure us young people into approaching them. A few months ago, I was approached by a Greenpeace canvasser who was just MY type, tall, dark, handsome, a backpacking wanderer, holder of a philosophy degree via U of T. I managed to get up to personal chatting for a good 45 minutes, eventually signed up for a 25$/month package (at the time, I agreed with a lot of the principles of Greenpeace and was a raging environmentalist looking for a method of putting my money where my mouth is) and just as I had signed my signature did his 'mysterious' girlfriend come up which had before then not been mentioned one bit. God damnit.
10:25 AM
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