Recently Dr. Kathy Lynch came home to visit her mother from sunny southern California, to help her move into a new home.
Not only did we go to school together, Kathy and I, but her dad and my dad went to school together as well. Kathy, her mother Colleen, her sister Estelle, and another friend, Bonnie, gathered for breakfast with me, and my mother Barbara. After picking up Mom, I hoped and prayed something would happen at breakfast because I needed some ‘ammunition’ for another Seedlings column! After sitting down at our table I cautioned and warned them to be careful what they would say because I might write about it and take their picture. They just laughed.
While eating eggs, bacon, pancakes, and so forth, Kathy told us about her flight to Nebraska. She proceeded to describe the big burly biker dude she sat next to, complete with the typical head bandana. Much to her surprise, he told her about his ballroom dancing lessons and experience. Little did she know she was sitting next to someone who could gracefully glide across the dance floor to the accompaniment of the Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strauss II, with a woman in his arms dressed in a big, bell-shaped dress. Who knew? Her comment to me was, “Looks can be deceiving!”
The same can be said about the poor and needy. To be sure, many look the part, but there are many others we would never know are struggling to make ends meet. They are all around us. Sometimes, these are the ones who find it hard to ask for help.
Not long after our breakfast, a woman driving her car recognized me, rolled down her window to tell me she will be donating a CD (certificate of deposit) and her vehicle to Catholic Social Services when she buys her next vehicle. It is this kind of generosity that allows us to help needy individuals and families that come to us in crisis.
I would like to thank Almighty God for his graces and our donors for their generosity so we can help the many needy individuals and families that come to us, no matter what they look like because looks can be deceiving.
