To the editor:

The other day, I saw a man sitting on the curb outside a store. He had a backpack on the ground in front of him with a dog lying on it, which he was shading from the sun with a cardboard sign. “NEED WORK,” the sign said.

Fishing for a dollar, I noticed that the dog was wet.

“He’s wet.”

“She.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s to keep her cool.”

He went on to explain that the backpack contained cold water bottles to help keep her cool. “I ain’t no fool,” he said, grinning at the comedy of the dog’s cool waterbed.

That dollar isn’t going to change his life. It might buy five cigarettes. A cup of coffee is a buck and a half. The real gift, of which we were both recipients, was the shared sense of our humanity, understanding that we could enjoy a laugh over small things.

There has been some discussion in Lawrence about the issue of people on Massachusetts asking for money. Someone suggested installing contribution boxes as a way to discourage folks from asking for help. Metal boxes could be mounted on posts for a cost of about $300 each, not counting administrative costs. But there might be a terrible cost if they become a substitute for recognizing the things we share with the people we pass on the sidewalk downtown.