Comment on What does a week of groceries look like to you?
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days agoThis would get old real quick.
I was a smoker in a past life.
Occasionally you encounter other smokers who are trying to cut down, or quitting, and limiting their intake by refusing to buy a pack of smokes and simply bumming smokes off the people they encounter.
Sounds nice in principle but obviously this very quickly deteriorates into a parasitic arrangement.
What I mean is, if I went to work every day and there was a guy there with a cup, obviously I’d happily give him whatever, but at any given lunch break if he was hungry he’d know he could search me out for a bite to eat.
Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I thought it was interesting and uplifting to see people come together to support this guy in a fairly simple way. He just told people about his mug if they asked and didn’t belabor it from there. Even shared candy when he got it.
I worked at a restaurant, where there’s a lot of food waste, so I was happy to help someone out while he found his footing. He didn’t come back on his own, I told him to see me when I’m working.
It’s weird to spin that into a “parasitic” relationship.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Sure ok. I’ll readily acknowledge that I’m a pretty weird guy.
I probably also have a lot of left over baggage from being a substance abuser of minimal socio-economic means. That is to say I just like to pay for my own stuff, and there’s a short list of people I might be very generous with but beyond that I’m not generous (with money) at all.
I guess it’s a bit different if the guy is interacting with a lot of different people every day.
I had envisaged a situation where I work in some kind of cubicle hell scape and every lunch time I need to sneak past old-mates cube in case he sees me and tries to swindle me into contributing some crisps or something.
Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Fair enough, I can see how that would taint your view of the world. Admittedly, that was a time when a lot of us were poor, in a place where a lot of young people go to get away from their lives. We were all just trying to get by, so we shared what we could.
I probably wouldn’t have met mug guy, if not for the mug, and he was a delight. I say that as someone who grew up in a pretty insular, toxic, pay-your-own-way sort of family. Mug guy showed me it’s okay to ask for what you need and some people genuinely want to help you.