10/04/2015
That one about the homeless man.
Would you care to help?
Pay it forward
For the past 3 years, this old gentleman has been quietly and patiently standing at a spot at the Prinzregentenplatz Ubahn station.
His name is Mr Roland H. and he is about 70 years old.
He is a soft spoken and polite man and when you take time to greet and have a chat with him, you begin to realise that he is a very intelligent man. His animated conversation with me are about books that he wrote before and how his life were normal before a drastic life event brought him to his current situation. :(
Each time I see him, he is always with his head down intensely working on his crossword puzzle from the piece of newspaper in hand. Mondays to Fridays he will be there doesn't matter what the seasons are, he will be there. Waiting... Waiting for someone, patiently from 12noon -10.30pm to buy at least one magazine off him.
So each time, I get off at my regular Ubahn stop, I will make sure to buy one or two pieces of Biss magazine off him. This magazine cost 2,20€ each. For each magazine sold, he and magazine sellers like him will get 1,10€ for themselves.
What breaks my heart to know from my chats with him, were that sometimes he only manages to sell 3 magazines for the day and nothing the next day. He earns only about roughly 120€ a month and that is what he has to survive on for the whole month including daily expenses.
Hmmm.... How sad is that.
It got me thinking of how we could easily pay perhaps 20€-40€ on a dinner night out and perhaps more, and there are people like Mr Roland H., who only eats a full warm meal only once a day, because they simply cannot afford it.
We have a roof over our head, a warm bed and family to come home to but there are others like him who doesn't.
There are about 100 magazine sellers in and around Munich, mostly stationing themselves quietly at a spot in the city or Ubahn stations, waiting for someone to notice them, smile, have a friendly chat and perhaps buy a magazine off them.
This smiley and cute photo of this friendly old man was taken after about 45mins chatting with him one evening. Nobody once stopped to take notice of him, say a friendly hello or buy a magazine off him. That makes me sad to reflect about how he is standing there alone and most times cold, with a positive hope that someone would buy the magazines off his hand.
Bless him.
Have people been so busy with everyday life that we tend to forget the simple etiquette of being nice to another human being to take notice?
Would you like to help?
Please share this post/page and make your soul a little bit brighter and blessed.
Have a lovely sunny weekend!
Love
Diah
Ella's Munich Guide
