A Giving Mood
- Charity -
By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine
ASIDE from being a name that’s either meaningfully apt or ridiculously ironic, charity is a concept more complicated than you think. From a very young age, we’re taught to be giving, especially to the less
fortunate. But then we’re told that it’s illegal to be giving money to street children, even as we’re taught in college to step out of our campuses and work with the poor. There is no longer anything simple about alms and giving.
Is charity complex?. The most complex part has to do with beggars. In particular, I remember a fantastic poem by Emmanuel Torres about being picky about beggars. It invoked vivid images of preferring the beggars who “work” to earn alms, those who play musical instruments, or compared to those who just sit there, hand outstretched with cup.
This dilemma gets even more pronounced during the holidays when a virtual army of urchins seems to sweep the city streets. So now, one has to choose between different kinds of street children, younger
versus older, one child carrying another, or perhaps holding hands of two even younger children. And what does that mean for the older beggars, or the disfigured ones, or the paralyzed ones?
