Mo Uses Largess

Mo: Okay. Today’s word of the day is largess. I will go first, okay. Does that sound fair?

Lego: Wait! Don’t you have to give the definition first?

Mo: Fine, but that wasn’t really in the rules. Largess means generous giving, often accompanied by condescension.

Lego: Ok. Go ahead.

Miney: Yeah, give it your best shot.

Mo: Ok. Here I go…

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As Mark walked down the busy city street street, careful not to spill the Cappucino from the foam cup in his hand, he spotted a heavyset old man, dressed in a dirty sweatshirt and light gray sweatpants, sitting in a wheelchair near the bus stop, with his amputated left leg exposed and a red plastic bucket on his lap. Mark always felt embarrassed and guilty whenever he passed street people, who would follow him down the sidewalk with their expressively sad eyes, asking for spare change, but he would always mutter “Sorry” into their buckets, and never look up. Today he was in an expansively good mood, thinking about the holidays and all of the expensive Christmas gifts he had purchased for his wife and kids last weekend, and how he had just paid $4.50 for his coffee, and all the old guy wanted was a couple bucks. If he threw money in the old guy’s pail, Mark wondered what he would spend it on; food, liquor or cigarettes? Would any amount be enough to really help the old man, or would giving an extraordinarily large amount be an act of largess that would be more for Mark’s own benefit than the beggar’s, since it would subject the old man to the greed of others who might want to steal a more valuable pot? Mark reached into his pocket and only found small change, so the question became moot and he immediately forgot it, as he quickly dropped several coins into the red plastic bucket, never pausing to respond as the old man said “God Bless”.

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Miney: Was it hard to write?

Mo: It took awhile.

Miney: Do you think it will get any easier?

Mo: I don’t know, but it was kind of fun. Did you like what I wrote?

Miney: I did, but who knows if anyone else will.

Lego: It was okay, I guess.

{muttering under her breath}: Good thing we’re incognito.