"Why Would I Help Out Those Less Fortunate Than Me?"

Faith, affluence, caring, empathy, and their various intersections.

Last May, I was pretty active in this F3 workout group in Fort Worth. One of the cornerstone areas of said group was this part of Fort Worth called “Tanglewood,” which is generally affluent and a mix of old- and new-money, or “passed-down money,” which I think incorporates both classifications. I don’t entirely know. The core public elementary school in the area is unsurprisingly called “Tanglewood Elementary,” and while many residents of that subdivision use what’s called “a double tax” and send their kids to private school, this place is generally a good elementary. In recent years, they opened another one near it (“Overton Park”) to manage the school population, and I believe Overton Park is now considered better, and that might rub some Tanglewood people the wrong way. Oh, the drama!

So I was doing this F3 shtick and I was involved and mostly liked it. One of the guys in it, his wife was helping run this Art Fair over at Tanglewood last May. I volunteered to help set up. It was 3–4 hours on a Sunday, so, big whoop. It ain’t NFL season. What am I doing?

I was assigned to the “second grade wing” when I worked this Art Fair set-up. It was me, four-five moms, and one other guy who I sometimes worked out with. Basically we hung paper on the walls and adjusted decor in doorways, etc. Sometimes we moved heavier stuff. Pretty standard.