It’s the middle of December, and a family is being evicted evicted. They’ve packed up everything they can fit into a couple of cousins’ cars, and now the rest of their stuff is laid out on the sidewalk, abandoned. The neighbors shake their heads with disgust. What kind of sick monsters would put kids out on the street — just before Christmas, at that? But then, one by one, those neighbors all start to realize something else: There is now a whole lot of free stuff sitting right there on the sidewalk, waiting to be taken. Nobody wants to be the first to rifle through it, but everyone hovers closer and closer, and soon they’re all in there, picking through the remains like vultures. Imagine that you’re one of them. Imagine that you’re on the verge of getting evicted, too, and that maybe you can find a Christmas present for your own kids amidst this wreckage. Imagine how quickly you’d get back inside with your share of the loot. Imagine the greed and the guilt screaming at each other inside your head. Imagine knowing that all your neighbors did the same thing as you, that the only thing keeping you from judging them is knowing that you did the same. Lots of people don’t have to imagine it. Something like that happens every day, probably somewhere near you.
