An Exceptionally Brief Reflection on Begging

          The act of giving to a beggar has less to do with benefiting the recipient than it does with absolving one’s own conscience of guilt in that fleeting, yet unbearable moment. Having dispensed with a few rupees, the beggar can be forgotten and one can return to the more sanguine elements of the day. But, if one does not give, the guilt nags upon one’s soul like a terrible blister...that is, until one’s mind is pulled so far afield by some other distraction that the beggar and the guilt, indeed the entire incident, are rendered but one more forgotten sadness, buried so deep in the darkest recesses of memory as to never even have happened.

The Frequency is Courage,
- Doug B.

A Sad Day in the Apple Store

I found out recently that there are more Americans in absolute poverty than the entire population of Nepal combined. Greatest country on Earth, right? India is a whole different story, but this minor statistic makes dealing with beggars in Kathmandu a little less soul crushing. I still feel like a schmuck refusing to give 10 rupees, or 7 1/2 cents, to people who really look as though they could use it, just not quite as much of a schmuck.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs...oh, and the tens of thousands of children who will die today from poverty and disease. But really, I can see how the death of a 56 year-old fantastically rich white male, whose greatest contribution to society was a personnel music player, is the real tragedy here. My heart really aches at the loss of the founder of the world's wealthiest corporation.