I have a lot of old stuff for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

One item I had was an Infinity Surround Sound speaker system with subwoofer for $130. A man said he’d take it and came over this evening, and showed up in a beater Nissan Altima. He was a bit shocked to discover this was an old school passive system that requires an amp to push it. I explained to him how it works…..he waffled a bit but then said he would take it, because he likes to fool around with electronics. He PayPal’ed me $130 as we loaded it up. All good. Nice guy. He mentioned how nice my house was and wonderful it must be to have some land.

As he was leaving he said check your phone to make sure the money arrived. I did and said it’s from “Metro Warriors Stem”, was that him? He said it was, that he runs an organization to help disadvantaged kids learn electronics in his spare time, and that it’s a struggle to keep it going sometimes. Then off he went.

I came inside and checked it out, sure enough there he was.

https://www.facebook.com/MetroWarriorsStemOrganization/

Then I had a moment of clarity. Heres this guy driving an old car, coming up to a well-off suburban home and the owner (me) is taking $130 from him for 20 year old speakers. And - he spends his time helping kids from poor households. What am I doing? I can do better than that.

I refunded his PayPal in full, and sent him a message to use that money instead for the kids.

Sometimes, we lose sight of how the other half lives.