Young Man At Goodwill Buying $65 in Coats, But Customer Knows They're Not for Him
We live in a world where every moment of your life can be captured and displayed all over the world via the internet.
Usually, we use this technological advancement to capture the worst of humanity be it for documentation, a bid for public ridicule, or new content for low-brow entertainment.
With virtually any imagery having the potential to “go viral,” we’ve gotten accustomed to being ready to pull out our phones and snap a picture or record a video at a moment’s notice. Too seldom do we use the hi-definition pixel technology in our pockets to capture people doing the right thing.
The result of these habitual tendencies is we have an internet flooded with people making poor choices. It starts to feel like the world around us isn’t a beautiful place.
These feelings can be particularly hard to combat in the winter months where lack of sunlight affects people’s moods and freezing temperatures make it harder for people to get their normal endorphin-boosting physical activity in.
In fact, this year’s winter has brought record-breaking wet and frigid temperatures to the majority of the United States.
Officials have warned people to stay indoors if able and to bundle up. We’ve even seen reminders about space heaters along with encouragement to check on our elderly loved ones.
But what if you don’t have that option? There are not enough year-round shelters to house the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the country.
Although many areas open seasonal shelters for the winter, there are still those who face each day and night on these cold streets. In Canton, Ohio, the past week has had temperatures below freezing, snow, and wind that blew at speeds in the double digits.
A man was shopping at the Goodwill thrift shop in Canton when he noticed something a tad unusual.
A young man was buying multiple coats altogether costing $65, a considerable amount of money at the thrift store giant.
While I may have thought the purchase was odd and subsequently come up with outlandish scenarios for why a person would need so many coats, I wouldn’t have asked. This man did and was so moved by the response he snapped a picture hoping to get this compassionate young man some recognition.
The man was spending his own money to buy coats for the homeless. They captioned the photo posted to Facebook briefly explaining what they’d experienced.
“Keep being an amazing person,” they commented. “We need more people like him in this world.”
It’s easy to dismiss the homeless as somehow deserving of their condition. Certainly for some, that is true.
Regardless, the homeless are still humans and should not be subject to a painful freezing death just because they don’t have the money (or social ability) to finance a different existence.
When we all take a little time for compassion, we help our weakest links rise up, in turn advancing our entire society.
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