The cold winds, the plunge in temperature, the fading colours of the maple leaves, autumn has found its way to Paris. Out come the scarves, the autumn winter coats (as I’m really scared of the cold) and the melancholy dances in the air. I don’t know why autumn always brings about it a tinge of melancholia even when things are so beautiful.
Went to distribute food with the Salvation Army the other day and it was really very well organised with things carried out with military precision. That of course, with the Salvation Army giving out food 364 days a year , they had better be better organised. (The 365th day will be Saint Sylvestre where the poor and the homeless would be welcomed to a warm shelter with their New Year Eve’s meal.) There are mixed feelings as you see the poor and homeless queueing up, pass you to get their dessert, cheese, mineral water and hot food. Poverty has not robbed some of their good upbringing. “Bonsoir” and “Merci” were exchanged and gentlemanly smiles were detected. The opposite of the spectrum is also true. Terse grabbing of the food from your hands and not a word of thanks. There were yet others who asked if there were not other flavours for the dessert other than the one that we were distributing. There were well clad people in the queue too, with expensive looking handbags who came for the free meal, jostling with others who might be having their first meal of the day. These people are really repulsive. Just because they could not be bothered to cook for dinner, they decided to swing by and pick up their food. As volunteers, we could not deny whoever came into the queue and to prevent agression, we distribute accordingly making sure that each person only took one of which, but of course there will always be those fellows that’d make off with two. It became slightly aggressive towards the end of the distribution where a guy tried to run away with two plates of piping hot food. Ratatouille and breaded turkey took on such a different signification here as the security guard tried to restore order with the end of the queue shoving one another trying to get at the few remaining plates left out of the 350 portions.
“Il y a la guerre même dans la misère,” said an older volunteer to me. It means there is also war in misery. When people are desperate, they become aggressive and satisfying their own needs become so important that they forget about everything else. Of course it is easy for me to say so, being an armchair critic and all. It must be really difficult for them. I’m actually proud of the French government for not forgetting these people, of contributing 60 pct towards the Salvation Army funds and distributing 350 meals each night without fail. The organisers and volunteers who does this on a daily basis have my utmost respect. Even in the cold 10°C Parisian nights, they consecrated an hour of their time to make sure that the poor and homeless are fed, without expecting anything in return.
It makes me wonder why human beings are so dissatisfied all the time. Always complaining, always wanting something better than what they have when others are struggling with basic needs i.e. a roof over their head, a warm meal, a warm place to sleep at night (which is not going to be easy due to the sudden plunge in temperature). Why is being contented with what we have so difficult? Maslow’s Pyramid is always at the back of my mind. Self fulfilment, self actualisation, what must we do to achieve all that? When can we finally indulge in simple things in life and finally enjoy and actually be happy for once.
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