Presents for the Homeless?

I've thought about this a lot, so when Jay made this comment, I decided to address it in a post and put it to a vote so that you, my public, can decide what I should do.

As you've read (if you read this blog, I mean) there is a woman who spends a good deal of her time sitting on a suitcase in the 7th Ave and 9th Street station on the F Line. I've actually thought about getting her presents before. In fact, one day I bought her a couple of bananas. When I came up to her she was looking down and when I stopped and tried to get her attention, she didn't look up at me. I freaked out and ran away with the bananas.

I haven't tried to give her anything since.

There's another woman who I see on a regular basis. She sits outside the Jay Street - Borough Hall stop. Every time I see her she is either smoking or writing in her little notebook. Though, this woman isn't writing words, she's just making tiny, perfect, marks in some pattern. She usually has about 5 or 6 different pens -- ballpoint -- in different colors. I've often thought about buying her a new notebook, some multi-colored pens and a pack of Newports and wrapping them up like a birthday gift.

I'd make it beautiful and special and tell her, "Happy Birthday," even though I don't know when her birthday is. And I'd explain that although it may not be her actual birthday, I think that everyone deserves a birthday present so I wanted to give her one.

But then I worried. I can't decide whether giving a homeless woman a wrapped gift would seem pretentious. Or maybe she'd find it condescending. Would I really be being kind or would it be presumptuous?

In New York some homeless people tend to stay in the same areas, or ride the same subway lines. So, when you see them every day, you tend to have a sort of relationship with them, the way you do with the guy at the corner deli or the mail person. I don't know these two homeless women at all, but I see them practically every day and have noticed things about them. Like one loves soda and the other draws tiny lines in her notebook. I've developed a fondness of a sort for them and if I ever got the nerve up to give either of them a gift, it would definitely have to be in some anonymous way otherwise I'd totally chicken out. I guess I'd have to write my "Happy Birthday" message on a card.

So, whaddya think? Should I do it?