B
A friend invited us to help serve dinner at Tent City. A number of tents were set up for the homeless in the area.
I took my two boys with me. They were 9 and 5 at the time. They had a lot of questions because this whole thing challenged their common ideas about how people lived in the world.
“Why don’t they have homes?
“Why don’t they get food the way we do?”
We talked through the reasons people end up in this kind of situation and the importance of creating a safely net(网) for them. I explained that sometimes the only safety net was other people who were willing to（愿意）share some of their time resources(资源).
The people we served including in age from the young to the elderly. Many of them were missing teeth or had dirty clothes. To my surprise, they were quite thankful that I had brought the boys. Many said how fun it was to have active, joyful children around.
After dinner, I saw my older son sitting together with several elderly gentlemen who were talking about sports in front of a small TV set. He was having a great time sharing and hearing stories.
As some people returned to their tents, I heard my older son tell them , “Thanks so much for coming to dinner with us.”I could see through their facial expressions that he touched them greatly. I hugged him a little as we left to go home because it touched me too.
It was a great reminder of how treating people with respect(尊敬), no matter who they are, can lift all us up.