Though I was originally fairly tired when I awoke this morning, I got up, made a pot of tea, and then started cutting up vegetables for breakfast. I sliced green onions, chopped a red bell pepper, and sliced a few white mushrooms after brushing off the soil that clung to them from the package. I brought tea in to Peter, who was still dozing, then came back out to the kitchen and continued the breakfast preparation. I heated my "egg" pan (8" diameter heavy-bottomed nonstick), poured in avocado oil, and started the mushrooms first. I added the bell pepper and allowed them to cook for several seconds. Next came the egg, and with that, the green onion was sprinkled on top. I tossed these ingredients for several seconds, then grated some Manchego on top. When Peter emerged, he looked tired, but awake. Kat was on her iPad at the time, but cleared the table as I left the mixture to cook on low heat on the stovetop. We had more tea as we sat down to breakfast, which was, in actuality, quite tasty and nutritious (I realize I'm nowhere near vegan at this point).
Peter and I got our dive gear together (what wasn't already in the car, which we'd packed the night before), and headed down to La Jolla Shores, where we lucked into a totally sweet parking space across the street from the park. We unpacked the car, then went to the low wall between the walkway and the beach to watch the surf for a while to plan our entry.
The surf was gentle for the most part, with waves coming in sets of three or four, with lulls between. We geared up and walked into the waves. I "cheated" and used my regulator to breathe as I donned my fins. Once I got them on, Peter told me to start kicking out, and he met me several seconds later after donning his own fins. We descended in about forty feet of water.
On our way to Vallecitos Point, we saw a few small crabs on a stalk of kelp, chestnut cowries, and a school of fish whose name I don't remember (I thought they were senorita fish, but Peter told me later that they're another species, though they look a lot like senoritas). We saw a fat navanax and a few octopuses, one of whom I followed across the sand for a little distance, much to its dismay, I'm sure.
We finished the dive by swimming slowly along the bottom until we were at about a depth of twenty feet, at which point we made our three-minute safety stop, then surfaced and kicked back to the beach. We'd drifted northwards during the dive, so we came out through a tiny bit more surf than where we'd entered the water.
After taking off our gear and drysuits, we strolled to The Shore Thing Cafe, a small eatery that serves sandwiches, coffee, pastries, and, today, lentil soup. Peter got a Nutella cookie which we shared. We sat with our coffees for a good while talking (about this, that, and the other) before walking back to the park. There, we saw Jackie, who told us about "yelling" at some other divers who were carelessly kicking up a lot of sand at the canyon's edge. She asked us about our trip to Micronesia, and told us briefly about her trip to Galapagos.
When we were putting our gear back into the back of my car, several cars stopped, the drivers asking us if we were leaving. In the back of my mind, I always think to tell people, "No, we're not going anywhere, we're just teasing passing drivers."
Peter answered the first query of "Are you leaving?" with "Yes, but it's going to take us several minutes" to get everything into the car. When we finally left, we saw a familiar sight: there was a woman holding a corrugated cardboard sign at the intersection of Torrey Pines Road and La Jolla Shores Drive. It's not an uncommon scene, that there are people there asking for handouts at street corners where, hopefully, well-heeled people drive past. Someone in a car ahead of us gave her a sandwich in a plastic box. "I bet you she's not going to eat that," I said. I surmised that she must be taking in quite a cash haul today from the holiday visitors to La Jolla.
I don't give handouts. I never did when I was a cash-strapped student, and I don't now.
I'm not opposed to people asking for and receiving public assistance. It is the government's role to care for its citizens. Some people asking for assistance are financially better off than the likes of people like me. I choose to live frugally and within my means without complaint. I'm opposed to living extravagantly when, by doing so, one ends up in the poorhouse by one's own actions. I hate it when people defraud others (the government or private citizens) by begging for money when they don't need it.
I understand that there are individuals who are mentally or physically incapable of helping themselves. People are allowed by our society to fall through the cracks between government rules created to reduce fraud. But fraud is still rampant.
I read an article a while back in which the author sees a woman sitting with a small "sleeping" child with a hat (or something) in front of them for people to toss money into. The child, the author learned, is likely to be drugged, and may not even be hers. The beggar may not get the cash gifts people bestow upon her. There are hustlers who use these poor people for their own financial gain. It's often impossible to tell whether someone is truly in dire straights or just defrauding the public at large.
I've heard it said that beggars are "selling" something to those who give them money. The do-gooders are buying a positive self-image. Seen in that light, people who beg without need are salespeople, selling that positive self-image to the do-gooders. Are they not operating under false pretense, though? Is it up to the do-gooders to ask pertinent questions to make sure they are not being duped?
I try not to be a mindless gift-giver. I cannot afford to be. I give to individuals whom I care about directly. I've started monitoring my nonprofit organizations. Some organizations are run by CEOs who grant themselves ginormous salaries. Other organizations are run on shoestring budgets. These latter organizations are the ones I want to support. The big, corporate nonprofits can take care of themselves, in my none-too-humble opinion...
Wow, I've really gone far from the beginning of today's entry, haven't I? Writing about something personal led me to more general issues that, hopefully, mean something to others as well as to myself. I just hope anyone reading these entries gets something positive from them. I get something positive out of writing them.
Well, I'll close for now. I'll try to get in a recipe or two in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment