Wow…I am still thinking about Bob from Day 251, aren’t you. I wish you could have been there with us for the entire conversation. He was really amazing. Today’s recipient is equally impressive. Read on!
These two guys opted to decline the $10. (photo: Reed)
Day 254 started with two refusals. First two guys who were sitting on the grass in front of an office building at the corner of 19th and O Streets said “No” because they were deep discussion. Then I wandered down 19th Street a little further where I found William, a US Post Office mail carrier. He was sitting in his truck grabbing a bite to eat and said that he was too busy.
I kept on walking down to the corner of 19th and M Street. I looke across the street to see if Anthony was there, but I didn’t see his smiling face. It was around there that I ran into Christina carrying a clear container of salad from Mixt Greens and a Netflix movie envelope. She seemed skeptical of my motives at first, but agreed to accept the $10. We walked west down M Street as we talked.
Christina poses for a picture with her pricey salad. (photo: Reed)
I find out that she works at a nearby NGO and is on her lunch break. “This salad cost more than $10,” she tells me as I hand her the $10. I asked her what she got in her salad, I mean for that price I was hoping that she at least got some truffles or Beluga caviar or a TV. I mean I once heard of a salad at the Hemel Hotel in London that had Almas golden caviar, Beluga caviar, kreel-caught langoustines, Cornish crab and lobster, plus Florette baby leaf salad tossed in some super expensive olive oil with grated truffle placed in a basket made from courgettes, red peppers and potato and decorated with gold leaf…all for the low price of US$982!
She was carrying a DVD so maybe they gave her that. Nope. Just a salad. “I think this might be my first and last salad from there,” she says.
I asked her what about her made her unique. She paused and thought for a moment and said, “Well, I am a brain cancer survivor.” I swallowed and tried to think of something to say. She told me that they removed the tumor in July and that she was currently going to chemotherapy every two weeks. “I feel good now,” she says with a smile.
“How did you find out,” I ask trying to imagine how many things most go through your head when you learn this. She says that there wasn’t a lot of time to think about anything. They operated almost immediately once they had found the malignant tumor. We arrive at her office. I continue to ask some more questions without realizing that I was now completely focused on her bout with cancer and there is a lot more about Christina and I only probably have a few minutes more before she needs to go up to her office.
Christina loves to travel – especially internationally. She has a passport full of stamps to prove it too. Croatia, Thailand and Italy as some of her favorite places. “Did you go to San Gimignano in Italy,” I ask. It’s one of my favorite places on the planet. She had in fact visited the tiny hilltop village. She fondly recalls some of her memories from her trip. The small town where there was only one phone booth with a line of people wrapping around it outside. “We also saw this woman who had this really nice flower garden. She ended up inviting us in and made us try all these different types of homemade grappa. One was made with oregano, another with thyme…” As she is telling me about her trip I can’t help but slip into the memory of my own trip there and how much I enjoyed it.
photo: Reed
She also tells me that she loves movies, hence the DVD in her hand. “Shoot,” she says looking down at the red and white Netflix envelope. “We got talking and I totally forgot to drop this off at the post office.” I had already taken a good chunk of her lunch break so I offered to go and drop it off.
We say goodbye and I start walking back toward the post office when I shout back, “What movie did you get?” “It’s True Blood,” she says referring to the hit HBO series starring Anna Paquin.
I got an email a few days later from Christina letting me know that she had donated the $10 to Mercy Corps for their Pakistan flood relief efforts.
Year of Giving 