A friend invited us to help serve dinner at Tent City. A number of tents (帐篷) were set up for the homeless in the area.
I took my nine-year-old boy with me. He had a lot of questions because this whole thing challenged (挑战) his 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 why people end up in this kind of situation. Many of the people we served were missing teeth or had dirty clothes. To my surprise, they were quite thankful that I had brought my boy. Many said how fun it was to have an active child around. After dinner, I saw my son talking about sports happily with several elderly gentlemen. He was having a great time with them.
As some people returned to their tents, I heard him tell them, "Thanks so much for coming to have dinner with us." I could see that my son's simple words touched them greatly. I hugged him as we left to go home because it touched me too.
We should treat people with respect, no matter who they are, I think my boy has learned this.
