If I need change for a parking meter and you give me change for a dollar, well you just saved me from getting back in my car and having to look for a new place to park or for a store that will change my dollar. You saved me an inconvenience.
I would define that as simple act of kindness.
I haven’t been out of the house yet today. But less than 24 hours ago, I just finished reloading my card at a transit vending machine and a man with a foreign accent asks how to buy a one-way ticket. So I press all the buttons for him and he inserts his money and he gets a ticket.
No big deal, but I was happy I could put my skills to good use.
In my university days, I saw a campus cop about to write a parking ticket. Before he could, I put a coin in the meter. He rolled his eyes are wrote the ticket anyway and showed me the added note that said, “passerby put quarter in the meter.”
I went to the grocery store this morning. As I parked next to an older lady, I noticed that she was having a lot of difficulty getting out of her car. I didn’t think too much about it, but wasn’t surprised that she was still at the cart corral when I got there, in spite of her head start. What did surprise me was that she offered me a cart before taking one for herself.
I expressed to her that she didn’t need to do that.
We passed one another in the aisles as we shopped a couple of times and then we were both back at our cars unloading at the same time. Now it was my turn to do her a solid. I took both our carts back to the store. She was very grateful as she had spent most of her energy in the store. We both chuckled and she made a comment about one good turn deserving another.
It wasn’t a bad start to the day.
After delivering our meals on wheels route, I joked with an old gal on the elevator about Valentine’s Day. It turned into a bit of a Burns & Allen routine:
Lady, indicating the basket full of MOW bags): Lookin’ pretty good there!
Me: You mean me just standing here? I do have that effect on women.
Lady (giggling and looking at my ring): How long have you been married?
Me: 25 years.
Lady: Do you make her laugh every day?
Me: Oh sure. In fact, sometimes she just looks at me and bursts out laughing.
Lady (laughing): Do you have plans for Valentine’s Day.
Me: Yeah, I think I’ll take a nap.
Lady: Laughs and leaves the elevator.
And scene.
I think I made her day.
I washed my son’s towels from his bathroom today. He’s been doing all his own laundry for years, but every once in a while I wash his towels and sheets and stuff.
Other than that, I haven’t been our of the house or really interacted with anyone yet today.
I let my gf blow me, even tho I really wasn’t in the mood.
It stopped raining for a little while around 3pm, so I took the dogs out in the Jeep. First time in a couple days. They acted like it was their first day on Earth. I’ve never seen them romp and jive so much in a long time. Sheer Joy!
Happy dogs.
I let an acquaintance bring her daughters over to pet my horsies and feed them carrots.
StG
I and two neighbor guys helped a delivery truck driver get moving after getting stuck in the snow. Took about five minutes worth of shoveling and pushing. It’s unlikely he’d be able to get unstuck on his own.
I still work with my ex boyfriend. Today he was the first guy with keys to show up. I’d been sitting in the outside chairs with a couple of other cold-workers and I walked over to the gate and held his coffee while he undid the door and then took the keys and ran over to get the door unlocked before the alarm, because I move faster than him. Then I went through the building and unlocked the door to let in the other two so they wouldn’t have to cross the icy yard.
Btw, yeah making change is a kindness. A lot of people simply wouldn’t bother and the person needed the change could have ended up with a ticket if they decided to chance it.
Am I a day too late? Never mind.
I’m going to spend the afternoon down at the allotments (community garden?) because Edie wants to work on her plot and doesn’t like to be there alone. There isn’t anything in particular that I need to do, but I’ll find something to keep me busy.
j
I disagree. The woman had the dollar in her hand, and she was looking for kindness, not charity. People can be funny about charity, and I thought it was kinder to take the dollar. If a person on a bus needs change of a five, I take the five and given them five ones, though I could afford to pay their bus fare.
Today I held the laundromat door open for a guy with a full shopping cart of clothes. Those things can be hard to maneuver.
Thank you.
My point was, if you hadn’t made change for her, I wouldn’t have considered that neutral. You would have kinda been an asshole. Making change was neutral, just giving the money would have been kindness. Maybe we just have very different standards of basic human interaction.
I believe there are perfectly legit reasons for not wanting to exchange money with a complete stranger.
Not doing anything would have been neutral.
Taking time out of your day to do something for a stranger that you have no obligation to do is an act of kindness. No matter how small the act is.
See, I don’t consider fishing 4 quarters out of my pocket to be “taking time out of my day”. I can walk briskly for 5 seconds and I’m totally caught up.
Ditto. About as much of a kindness as telling them the time. Still better than nothing, but not a whole lot.
You know, I gave a stranger the time once. Hell, I didn’t have to take the time out of my day to look at my watch, and then read the time to her. I just saved her from getting back in the car and having to look at the clock on the dash–if its even set to the right time. If not, she’d have to go to a store and look at their clock. I saved her a considerable amount of inconvenience. It’s simple acts of kindness like that which make me a better person every day.
There was that scene in Seinfeld where a stranger refused to tell George the time, he just pointed to a clip ck and walked away. As George said, you know we’re living in a aociety, right?