自強之路

My PC mouse broke down. It was then never just a click away any more between the world and me, which I hated most. Yesterday evening Mom gave me two hundred dollars to buy a new one.

When I was happily on my way to the appliance store, I was accosted by a woman. Ragged and unkempt, obviously a homeless vagrant at middle age, she told me with tears, "Mister, a few days ago a man borrowed 185 dollars from me to fetch some medicine for his bad cold. He told me to give my money back today. However, he didn't. He used to sleep somewhere around in the park, but I didn't meet him today. I need the money desperately. Otherwise what can I get from my hand to mouth today?"

I was astonished on the spot, not knowing what to do. Somehow my hand reached into my pocket and gave her my mere cash. "Maybe she needs the money more badly than I do," I thought to myself later, rather a bit reluctantly. I came back home with nothing in my hands, and I explained what happened to Mom, feeling wronged. 

"You were just helping her, Kid," she comforted me with a smile, seeming that she favored what I had done to the lady. She patted my scruff gently and went on, "If you clench your hand, you've got nothing in it; open it wide, and you have the whole world."

Apparently, I got something more valuable than two hundred dollars that day. And indeed it is much more.