April 3, 2005

Humanitarian dilemma

And so, even as the pope lies in state, awaiting burial, I found myself distributing brown bag lunches to the homeless on the streets of San Francisco.

Not that I felt moved by the Pope's death to do my part, I just felt like I could share a bit of my own good fortune with those who have little.

As I distributed the ham, turkey, and roast beef sandwiches with a banana, napkin and a bottle of water, I found myself evaluating who I thought deserved the bag lunches the most.

With a fixed number of bag lunches, it was only natural to try to maximize benefit by distributing them to those who needed them the most. There is a problem with this logic, however. How do I know who needs the lunches more? Am I supposed to take a survey, find out who's been eating the least then distribute the lunches to those people? Or should I reward those who work the hardest begging from all the affluent Lexuses, Escalades, and Beamers?

If I do evaluate who I think deserves them more, that implies there must be some specific goal I'm trying to achieve by distributing the bag lunches. Honestly, I hadn't considered this before I began. I knew I just wanted to do something.

What's more, how do I know giving someone a brown bag lunch, an act intended to help and uplift, won't cause that person to later be beaten up by a meaner, less scrupulous homeless person for the very lunch that was intended to help them?

The law of unintended consequences is a devil, indeed.

There's a simple answer to this humanitarian dilemma.

Do not discriminate, analyze, or evaluate. Give aid anywhere it is needed, and pray that the will of God is served by the act.

The fact is, after I give someone a brown bag lunch, I have no control over who ends up ultimately eating it. I don't even have control over how the receiver feels about receiving the lunch. It's entirely possible that they could be upset by the gesture.

So, if you ever find yourself distributing bag lunches in San Francisco, remember, you cannot control the ultimate impact your good deed has, you can only pray that it has the effect you originally intended. The rest is in God's hands.

Richard

Posted by Richard at April 3, 2005 8:12 PM

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