This guy walked by me on Brooks, carrying a gas can, looking beat up—like black-eye beat up. He looked beat as in tired, too. He stops me, I pull my headphones out—believe me, hot from walking to the bus and not at all happy about being held up in the heat. He proceeds to tell me a story that indicates about five words in that he needs help. And I think I might see what I could do. But he doesn’t let me get a word in edgewise and talks and talks and talks—he tells me about a crime, he tells me about injuries, he tells me about where he works, what he pulls in, and tells me the street corner where his bank is. And I know he’s trying to indicate that he’s reliable, but the more he talks, the less I want to help. After more talking he finally asks if I can help. I’m already thinking, like don’t waste my time. Let me save you the trouble. I tell him I don’t carry cash (I have some in my wallet), I tell him I only have my student ID for the bus and for food at the University. He says, “You have a debit card,” as if I’m already going to lie to him. I say no; I leave it home since I can buy food on the student ID. He looks incredulous and then picks up his gas can and nods and says “Thanks, bro,” at the same time that I say, “Sorry.”

Now I have been feeling guilty about this several times today, but I have to re-think that. He demanded of me that I had a debit card—like he had a right to it. I have dealt with a LOT of beggars, and they don’t demand things. This guy could’ve been down on his luck, but then, I don’t know… he was pretty smooth with his story—never let me have a word in edgewise. He had a lot of proof without being asked a lot of questions. There’s also the fact that I am kidding anybody if I think I have money to just give away. Whenever in my life I have had a large quantity of money, I have generally given it away without much thought. It’s been a hedonist’s life for me! But I’m starting to think that needs changing. It’s time to start thinking about the future—long term. The world is just too crazy right now not to bother. I think doing so is like what’s-his-name fiddling as Rome burned. Funny, I just heard that analogy not too long ago—pretty salient. Did it change my mind, or did I just now to decide to use a salient memory for the purpose of establishing my reasoning and justification? That’s actually a provable hypothesis. Have people read arguments. Two weeks later, have them make an argument for something and see if any of the analogies re-surface. There was a study of Shakespeare that did something like this by assuming that Shakespeare was in his own plays—so the roles he played would have words that would show up more often in the next script. This is the same thing but more generalized. Think of it as a neuronal cluster of relationships; some more fired up than other because of recent usage.

Read the whole thread: A Field Guide to the Socially Inept