She decided she could spare a hard-boiled egg

"The voice of a child cried to her “Auntie, please Auntie”. The cries are so incessant that it’s easy to miss them; they’re background noise. Courtney did not have enough to give to all who cried out. The little she had she reserved for only the most desperate, so she continued. But so did the voice of the little one. When she finally turned to tell the child that the food was only for those who were sick, she saw instead that the child’s pleas were coming from a man of about twenty whose body had degenerated to next to nothing, and who was clothed only with rags. She decided she could spare a hard-boiled egg." (Scott Bessenenecker, The New Friars, p.127)

I’ve been meaning to blog about this quote for a while, or ever since I came across it, a couple of months ago. Somehow the picture of the hard-boiled egg stuck to my mind. The horrible picture of having to reserve one’s limited resources only for the most vulnerable, of having to ignore all others. One some days, I must admit that I’m really tempted by the Bill and Melinda Gates brand of activism. I’d rather be part of something big than have to deal with the type of powerlessness described in this passage. I had always been attracted by big top-down solutions. And in many ways, I still am.