GIFT
OF BOLOGNA

Topics: Assumptions; Generosity; Giving; Help; Judging Others; Kindness; Sacrifice; Self-centeredness; Service

References: Deuteronomy 15:7; Proverbs 19:17; Matthew 25:31–46; Luke 6:38; Romans 12:13; 2 Corinthians 8:12; 9:7

Long before Sebastian Junger wrote The Perfect Storm, he decided to hitchhike across the country. He writes of what took place while making his way through the aftermath of a blizzard in Gillette, Wyoming:

After two or three hours I saw a man working his way toward me along the on-ramp from town. He wore filthy canvas coveralls and carried a black lunchbox, and as he got closer I could see that his hair was matted in a way that occurs only after months on the skids. I put my hand on the pepper spray in my pocket and turned to face him.

“You been out here long?” he asked. I nodded.

“Where you headed?”

“California.”

“Warm out there.”

“Yup.”

“You got enough food?”

I thought about this. Clearly he didn’t have any, and if I admitted that I did, he’d ask for some. That would mean opening my backpack and revealing all my expensive camping gear. I felt alone and ripe for pillage, and I just didn’t want that. “I got some cheese,” I said.

“You won’t make it to California with just a little cheese,” he said. “You’ll starve.”

At first I didn’t understand. What was he saying, exactly? I kept my hand on the pepper spray.

“Believe me,” he said, “I know. Listen, I’m living in a car back in town, and every day I walk out to the mine to see if they need me. Today they don’t, so I won’t be needing this lunch of mine.”

I began to sag with understanding. In his world, whatever you have in your bag is all you’ve got, and he knew “a little cheese” would never get me to California. “I’m fine, really,” I said. “I don’t need your lunch.”

He shook his head and opened his box. It was a typical church meal—a bologna sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips—and I kept protesting, but he wouldn’t hear of it. I finally took his lunch and watched him walk toward town.

I learned a lot of things in college. I learned things in Europe and in Mexico and in my hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts. But I had to stand out there on that frozen piece of interstate to learn generosity from a homeless man.

—Sebastian Junger, “Welcome Stranger,” National Geographic Adventure (June 2006)