Just a Buck

I don't carry cash very often. Occasionally I'll pull a twenty out of the ATM when I know that I'm going to a poker game, a restaurant where I'm going to need to tip, or a place that I know only accepts cash, but for the most part its plastic only. The last time I got cash out of an ATM was probably 2 months ago.

I pulled a twenty out then, and have been spending it down over the pas couple months at random places when I didn't want to or couldn't use my card. $20 to $15, then to $8, and then to $4, and finally to $1. Just one. No change left over even. A single dollar. In fact, I forgot I had it most of the time. Every time I opened my wallet I would see that single lonely bill just sitting there, waiting to be used. But  it  didn't mean much to me, even the extremely poor college student that I am. I mean, what can you buy with a dollar these days anyway?

A worthless dollar.

However, as I exited the grocery store today to see the fairly well dressed pregnant woman uncomfortably approach me and explain that her credit card didn't work and she needed gas to get back home--even a dollar would help--my mind immediately flew to the single lonely bill. The worthless dollar. The dollar that meant so much to this woman whose watery eyes were begging for anything. I opened up my wallet and gave  her all the cash I had. One dollar. She sounded so grateful as she gingerly placed the bill in her purse and thanked me.

On the way home I was thinking. I carried that worthless bill around for weeks. It started off a beautiful crisp twenty, and as time progressed it  became smaller  and smaller until the single wrinkled denomination became the backdrop to my wallet. But it still had a purpose. The whole time I was carrying around that extra 1.00 grams of paper so that I could give it to her and she could get  home. Every time I went to school, it was with me. Every time I went to practice, it was with me. Every time I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and carelessly tossed it on my desk before I went to sleep, the dollar was in there. Waiting. The  twenty became  reduced because I wanted a pack of gum from the gas  station, and further because of an In-N-Out burger, and even further because of a chocolate bar, but the whole time, that one dollar was saving itself for someone that really needed it.

A priceless dollar.

I know someone out there  is carrying a dollar for me. I'm going to need it someday, and  I'll be very grateful.