What am I supposed to do when I see people slumped over, begging on the sidewalk while I eat my nice dinner?

When people are sleeping on cardboard outside my apartment?

The level of need is so major, so frontal, so uncomfortably painful. Walking past them without acknowledging the level of need, feels deeply unethical to me. At the same time, interacting has felt scary to me. Too risky to pause. And, likey, it actually is risky which is why I have avoided it. While I don´t feel proud to admit it, pausing and helping feels too overwhelming to me. Like I am taking on too much. But they are not invisible, and that dissonance inside myself is very real.

I made a small habit of when I was really angry or annoyed by people on the bus, so often displaced Venezuelan people selling the same gum, I would make myself give a small donation. I would make myself exit the anger a little and say, even in spite of myself, “You are angry, tired, and don´t want to look at this, but you can be a tiny bit generous in this context.” Somehow, I do usually walk away a little less angry after that. Then, I encounter the next person who gets on the bus who asks the same questions and has the same super high levels of need…