December is the time of many a celebration. For us Finns, Christmas
is not the only festivity at this time of the year, as we also have our
Independence Day on the 6th, which is a national holiday. Each year
the president has a big party for the important and achieved people of the
nation, and each year at the same time ordinary people serve the poor free food
outside of the president’s “castle” (yes, even socialistic Finland has people
in need, unfortunately). Ever since I first learned about the generosity of
these “ordinary” people, I felt very impressed and glad that there are people
who genuinely care about others.
After realizing the extent of poverty in the San Francisco
Bay Area, I remembered this Finnish Independence Day tradition of helping
others, and for some time now a desire to do something similar for the homeless
here has been brewing in my mind. This year, as it happens, Finland had her 100th
independence day, which provided me the last remaining push to finally decide
to materialize my desire to help. This would be a perfect way to celebrate our centennial!
So, I invited some of my family members to join me in making
some 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and help me distribute them out. I
chose to give them out here, in San Francisco, where I currently live. The event
was a success – the sandwiches were all gone soon! And how good it felt to be
able to help others!
In retrospect, I find it interesting to notice some of the
thoughts that were arising in my mind when I was planning to execute this
project. I seemed to have doubts about whether the homeless people would appreciate
my gesture, as a lot of them really only want money. However, out of all the
people we met, only one declined the sandwich, and only one requested white
bread (I used only whole grain of course). In fact, everyone we met was very
appreciative! Especially that one person with a peanut allergy – knowing that
peanut is one of the “big eight” allergenic foods, I had made one sandwich with
just jelly. Even though everything went well, what would it even matter if the people
on the streets didn’t like my idea? At least I was trying to help others and had
genuinely good intentions. Sometimes one just has the get over oneself.
Here are some of the people we met:
Even though this was a very small gesture, and will not do much
in the grand scheme of things, I can say that it was worth it. If nothing else,
I hoped to show others that there are people thinking and caring about them out
there. Personally, it also makes me feel glad that after all this time thinking
about doing this, I finally had the courage to go for it despite my mind’s unhelpful
suggestions. Most importantly, however, going through with this event made me
realize that there are many ways to be generous – in every situation there is
always an opportunity to smile, to be kind, or to offer others help and friendship.
I wish you a very joyful Christmastime.
Anna-Kaisa
