"Lives of Quiet Generosity"
If one spends any time among the homeless and "underhoused" in a Minnesota shelter, one cannot help but notice the small, quiet but significant acts of generosity that are amazingly commonplace there. A young man, bare-ankled and with duct-taped toes on his shoes, incredulously receives the gift of a pair of socks from a scruffy-looking stranger. A tired looking man in the lunch line asks for a second plate to bring to "that lady in the wheelchair." An older man with a small disability income gives a shelter worker a handful of bus tokens to give to someone who may need them. An elderly woman who uses a walker to get around brings cookies to the center and cheerily claims "we all need a smile!" An incredibly bad-smelling man pulls a filthy, but wrapped, candy out of a tattered pocket and hands it to a grateful shelter worker.