Just the other day I was minding my own business, perusing the Twittersphere when I came across a tweet from the @Atlantic that simply blew my mind: Good Samaritans getting fined thousands of dollars for spreading love.

#What #Mindblown

The tweet actually read “The Liberty to Feed the Poor,” which was the name of the story in the Atlantic. Author Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) wrote a compelling story of people getting fined by local governments for feeding the homeless and illustrated this phenomena through San Antonio chef Joan Cheevers. By day she served celebrities, hot shots and big wigs. And at night she fed the homeless men and women of San Antonio the same culinary delights. She did this on her own volition. And what was the city’s reward for her spreading love?! A $2,000 citation.

#What #Mindblown

You’ll have to read the story to get the full scope of the madness (Story:  The Liberty To Feed The Poor)

When I initially started this blog and said that it was going to include love I didn’t mean romantic love. I have nothing to write about yet. Derek Jeter has yet to propose. What I meant was agape love. The kind of love that exudes from everyday, ordinary human beings performing small acts of kindness that have extraordinary impact. Kind of like Chef Cheevers. And kind of like my dad.

My father is the reason I connect with this story. I’ve served the poor and fed the hungry many times in my life. Not tooting my own horn but I was raised by a very compassionate father who instilled in me values of charity and kindness at a very young age. And from that, I learned that the homeless and hungry are no different from you and me. I grew up with this perspective and have thus acted on it in adulthood. And should I get fined for it, then be it. It’ll just be fuel to do it again and again and again.

Tea of Choice: Honey Chamomile Tea … to calm me down from the probable citation