Anyone Find a Wallet?
“Anyone find a wallet? I give you a reward.”
The panic in his voice overwhelms me. I turn around to see a middle aged man, in worn clothing frantically walking around the store bellowing out “Anyone find a wallet? I give you a reward.”
I am at the Downtown Goodwill Store. I like to shop thrift stores, and this one is huge. I’ve been having fun just looking at all the stuff I don’t need to take home. Now, I am unsettled. I check my purse just to make sure my wallet is still safely inside. I have lost my purse before. I know the strange sense of loss that runs through you when you lose an object that you count on. My wallet is safe, and I feel momentary relief.
I attempt to continue shopping; he continues to wander the store begging someone to find his wallet. He is still in the store when I get ready to leave, long after I would have stayed had I lost my wallet. I would have been running home to call in all the lost credit cards and get the replacements ordered. It would have been a huge hassle for me. All it would have been was a hassle; I would have been fine.
His voice indicated that he didn’t think he would be fine. The panic in his voice made me wonder what he’d lost. How much cash did he have in that wallet? Was this his rent money, his food money, his bus pass to get home? Were there pictures of his children that he rarely gets to see? He hovered around the store, long after any real hope of finding the wallet had passed; his mind could not grasp the magnitude of his loss. He just kept repeating “Anyone find a wallet? I give you a reward.”
My mind raced through all the possible reasons for what I perceived as panic in his voice. I’ll never know what the real story is. I didn’t stop to ask. I saw myself as helpless in this situation. What could I do, really? I paid for the items I’d found and fled to the comfort and safety of my car.
As I think back, it would have been so easy to help him. I could have responded to his calls letting him know I was keeping my eyes open for his wallet. I was keeping my eyes open. I could have asked him what he’d lost. I could have offered him a little money, at least enough to take a bus home. I could have let him know that I cared that he’d lost something valuable. Who knows, my gesture might have opened up other people that would also have helped. Maybe, within that store there were enough of us that we could have helped ease his burden just enough.
Change happens in this world when we get out of our own way, when we follow the instinct to reach out to others. I wonder what opportunity for change I missed that day.