Extending a warm hand in cold weather

There’s an old children’s ditty, sung to the tune of John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and

Stripes Forever, that might well serve as inspiration for generosity this winter.

“Be kind to your web-footed friends,” the lyrics go, “for that duck may be somebody’s mother’’.

Though light in spirit, the words are heavy with meaning that can apply in this cold season as we rush past some of our much less fortunate brethren.

With the icy grip of winter increasingly closing in on much of China, we should let kind thoughts of others, particularly society’s most vulnerable — street beggars and the homeless — warm our hearts.

But sadly, with the overwhelming dominance of mobile and electronic payments, these same people are especially threatened when biting winds whip in from the north. Since most people no longer carry cash, what now will fill the curbside cups and bowls in place of the pocket change by which these poor souls have long survived?

It’s all too common to see a crumpled elderly man or woman sitting or reclining beside a tin cup, shivering beneath a tattered blanket as urbanites rush past, either not caring or in too much of a hurry to notice. Keeping in mind the children’s tune, let’s remember that these people are all somebody’s mother or father, grandmother or grandfather, sister or brother.

The cynics will chime in about how beggars in China are organized scammers or ne’er-do-wells. A Chinese friend, a devout Buddhist no less, once chided me because I gave 30 or 40 yuan ($5 or $6) to a hapless beggar shivering outside my workplace.

“Everyone knows they are actually wealthy people who live in big homes in the suburbs,” she told me, scoffing at what she assumed was my foreigner’s naivete.

In fact, I frequently saw this same man — who could not wear shoes, even in winter, because his feet were deformed — sleeping on the sidewalk, or getting hot coffee and a small bite to eat at the convenience store late at night, when most of us were fast asleep in our warm beds.

I would rather err on the side of generosity, and so I make it a point to keep hard currency, even a small amount, in my wallet expressly for this purpose.

But during this Christmas season, a time when in the West we remember others, even strangers, with gifts, maybe we can start a new tradition, giving a gift card, redeemable for a meal or groceries or a pair of gloves, to reward our favorite server, a street sweeper, a delivery person or, especially, the shivering homeless person.

And as we perfect electronic payment systems, maybe one day we will even see a universal gift card that those with kind hearts would give to fellow humans in need — a card with a QR code that could be redeemed anywhere, anytime, for coffee, shoes or maybe a warmer coat.

Call me a fool and a dreamer, but I hope as the temperatures drop that, in the words of John Lennon, “I’m not the only one.”