By Mandy Feder
“I have a tent,” I said, almost under my breath.
“What mombo?” My daughter Miranda asked perplexed.
I pointed to the man sitting on a five-gallon bucket on the curb at the entrance to Chico”s Home Depot.
He was typical as far as panhandlers are concerned ? a weathered man, probably in his late 50s, but looked a great deal older. He wore a torn and faded, olive green, military-style jacket with who-knows-how-many layers of shirts underneath. Frozen rain drops sparkled in his grey/red beard. His lined, leathered face undoubtedly had a library of stories behind it.
What set him apart was his sign, “I need a tent,” was written on the piece of cardboard box in black marker.
“I have a tent,” I said a little louder to Miranda. I put it in the back of my car when I drove to Oregon in the summer and I never put it back in the house. I guess I thought I might use it sometime. It was wedged between the kite, a CD case and a football.
I pulled over to the side of the road and walked up behind him with the two-man tent that was never opened. It had a built-in dome light.
I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Here”s a tent.” His face brightened and a tear formed in the corner of his left eye. “God bless you,” he said. The whole exchange took less than one minute.
When I returned to the warmth of the car, Miranda and I discussed the benefit of being specific.
If the man was asking for money I probably would not have stopped. I don”t usually carry much cash. I have also grown a bit complacent when it comes to panhandlers.
“But what if he sells the tent and buys booze or drugs?” Miranda challenged me.
“Well, I guess that”s up to him and at least he had the option to have a roof over his head on a cold winter day,” I said.
I told her we would probably never know the outcome and that”s OK.
Similarly, a homeless man named Ted Williams appeared in the news last week, worldwide. He offered his “golden voice” in exchange for money and food.
He too, was specific.
In his case, his ability to identify what he needed in exchange for what he had left to offer, his voice, landed him a multitude of job offers.
The task of helping others can be daunting when so much help is needed. I”m sure the man I saw needed a whole lot more than a tent. But imagine if the next day, he made a sign asking for a blanket and then a pillow and so on. These are all steps toward fulfilling his basic needs.
Then I pondered the two lessons I learned from the cardboard sign ? specificity and ingenuity.
I was reminded of “one red paperclip,” something my daughter Nicole told me about last year. She said this guy traded up with one red paperclip, until he eventually, in 14 transactions, had a house.
In 2005, Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger, bartered his way from one red paperclip to a house in a series of online trades. He said he was inspired by a childhood game called Bigger, Better.
The barter system is alive and well in this recession. There are a myriad of creative thinkers and groups formulating tactics to provide basic needs and comfort without resorting to desperate or illegal means.
One example is the website, Freecycle, which provides access to free goods and also makes it possible for people to post goods to donate items they no longer need to those who need them.
According to a Sacramento News and Review article, “Barter Town,” published on June 3, “In Sacramento and across the country, there are now barter clubs, online trading sites, barter ?zines.” In short, a complex barter infrastructure now exists to facilitate trade amongst people and companies short on cash but still needing and wanting to access markets. That infrastructure existed prior to the economic implosion of recent years, but the great collapse has dramatically fueled its expansion.”
The barter system tends to narrow things down a bit. The need, therefore, does not seem quite as overwhelming. If we all do little, it may help a lot.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” -Victor Frankl
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee managing editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32.
