For the photo on our June 2019 issue, we have received more responses. 

Alkistis Agio 

Many years ago, when I used to give to beggars, I believed that I was doing them a favour...Then, I had a dream that totally shifted my perspective: 

I dreamt that the homeless man was on some covert operation, disguised as a beggar, doing me a favor i.e. to give me the chance-opportunity to feel gratification in the act of giving him money...to feel better about myself. So now, when I give to a beggar, I thank him. 

I also sometimes volunteer for refugees here in Greece. It’s obvious that we all live on this Earth and we need to relate to each other as members of a cosmopolis, as Marcus Aurelius writes in his Meditations: “The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.” 

Dougie Gibbard 

On the question in issue 7 Tim Lebon says there are two answers to the question and then goes on to describe approaches to the question and finishes up asking a slightly different question. Greg Sandler says there's no straightforward answer to the question. Straightforward here means definite I presume. And he is correct of course. We all come from different backgrounds and have different emotions concerning this man's plight. As I do not know this man's background I would not respond. I read of a case where at the end of the day a beggar man collected up his sleeping bag and went off to where his car was parked and drove home .He was getting social security (this is in the UK, of course) as he was supposedly unfit for work. I have certain charities which I support and even in these cases I am not fully aware of what's happening with their finances. 

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