Real Shopping Cart Men...

Well, this has been interesting. When people find out what my "The Shopping Cart Man" book is about, they share their own little stories with me. It seems everyone has a brief "Yeah, I didn't give him money because he was going to buy beer" story, but I've heard a couple really interesting ones.

One took place in Russia where my co-worker's dad was a mission president a few years back. The president had told the missionaries that "everyone" deserved to hear the message of the Gospel. After hearing this, a young missionary saw a man literally sleeping in the gutter and told his companion that they needed to teach that man. The senior companion was extremely hesitant, but finally relented to let the junior try to teach him.

The missionary had to shake the man awake. It took him several moments to get coherent. The elder then told him he wanted to teach him about the gospel. The man agreed to listen as he sat on the curb with the elder crouched in front of him.

By the end of the discussion, the man had a couple of tears in his eyes. The elder asked if they could visit him again the next day to teach him more. He agreed. When asked where they should meet him, the man looked around, patted the curb and said, "I'll be right here!"

They met with the man several more times. He started going to church, got a job, a place to stay, clean clothes, and even started dating one of the girls in the little branch of the church there. Eventually, he was baptized. And, he married the gal.

My co-worker said that one of the last things his dad did before leaving Russia was to set apart the man as the branch president. You just never know...

Another story had a lot of twists and turns and is quite long. The short of it is that another of my co-workers had a son getting married. The bride's family was from South Carolina. A good-hearted brother (with questionable judgment) decided to drive from SC to Utah. On the way, one by one, he picked up five homeless men for various distances. One made it all the way from SC to UT. Another was arrested en route when the sleepy driver let him drive - and was awakened when the car was pulled over for doing 100+ mph, and headed for Montana. Turned out the guy had 4 warrants out for his arrest - he's now doing time.

I would NOT advocate picking up people at random to be your car buddies on long trips...

What's it all about?

I was asked to post a little bit about what my new book is about. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, "The Shopping Cart Man" is about a family that ends up helping a homeless man during the Christmas holiday. How that ends up happening is they are on a cross-country drive to spend Christmas with their grandmother when they pass an RV with a sticker about the "Good Sam Club" on it.

When the 10-year-old daughter, Emma, asks what that club is, her parents remind the kids about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Emma is intrigued and asks if there are still Good Samaritans around. In response to her older brother scoffing at her that "that was just in Bible times," their father points out that "anyone" can be a Good Samaritan.

Dad quickly learns you have to be careful what you say to your kids, because Emma takes that to heart. When they stop for lunch and are approached by a homeless man asking for money, Emma wants to "treat him like the Good Samaritan would," but Dad feels he'll only "buy beer" with the money as he gives him a little.

While the family is eating, the man comes in with a homeless lady. They buy a kid's meal. The man gingerly tears the tiny burger in two and shares it with the lady. At the sight of this, Emma is ecstatic for having helped, while the dad feels like a heel for having given so little.

After lunch, the dad refuels the car and sees the man again. He decides to make amends. One thing leads to another and the family ends up giving the man a ride with them all the way to Oklahoma as the story kicks into full gear.

Along the drive, the family gets to know the man and confront some of their prejudices. Meanwhile, the man starts to have troubling flashbacks hinting at his past - which he has totally forgotten. When they arrive in Oklahoma and drop off the man, he goes on a quest to discover his past and what it was that happened to him to put him in his current state, in the hopes of salvaging his future. ("When the trip ends, his journey is just beginning...")

I've been asked where the idea came from. Basically, a couple of years back, I had an experience similar to the one in the restaurant with the kid's meal. I find no pride in admitting that I was the dad who felt like a heel.

In looking back on the situation, I wondered what it would be like if someone really needed and wanted help, and if someone actually gave that help. That gave birth to this story. It's kind of the "best case" scenario.

I'd always wanted to write some sort of Christmas story, and this one worked into that very nicely. I also liked adding a touch of mystery to it with the man's amnesiac situation and a couple of other touches.

At any rate, that's what it's all about...