Random Act of Kindness

[davedove]

Yeah, I've been the contributor to a random act of kindness...

On my way home one evening, I heard a car blow a tire. A young, attractive woman got out and asked if she could borrow my cellphone to call the auto club. Instead, after telling her to carefully move the car to a quieter side-street, I changed her tire for her. She was so grateful that she gave me her business card and said she'd buy me a drink.

She stood me up.

Nowadays, I think twice before I do a favour for someone. I still do nice things on occasion (e.g. give way to another driver who is obviously in a hurry, or hold the door open for the elderly), but I won't go out of my way as often as I used to.

cheers
Hachiman

I'm sorry you had that discouraging experience. But do try to remember, we don't do these things for other people, we do them for ourselves. If you perform acts of kindness so that others will appreciate you, you're doing them for the wrong reason, because people will disappoint you so many times.

A line from a Garth Brooks song:

I do these things not to change the world; I do them so the world will not change me.

[sharpdressedscot]

I like to do random acts of kindness. I like to do some in a way destined to blow someone's mind. ONe of the best that I know of is to mail someone picked at random from a phone book a dollar bill. The rule on that one is to never put your own address as the return address, but to put something like, for example, the Nixon Library. Constructive random chaos can be fun!

Or Wrigley Field as your address...


I've done a few RAK's before, some small ones every day. I have a rule on holding the door for people though, if it's a HUGE (20+) crowd I have a little timer in my head... I don't have all day.

[Hachiman]

I'm sorry you had that discouraging experience. But do try to remember, we don't do these things for other people, we do them for ourselves. If you perform acts of kindness so that others will appreciate you, you're doing them for the wrong reason, because people will disappoint you so many times.

A line from a Garth Brooks song:

I do these things not to change the world; I do them so the world will not change me.

You do have a point, however I was originally just being kind when I changed her tire - I didn't expect any form of reward. However, her appreciation for the favour was "going to be returned" by buying me a drink (which never happened). Had she never made that offer, I wouldn't feel offended.

Besides, I still do nice things for the sake of being nice... they're just smaller acts. My understanding of karma (a discussion of which isn't really appropriate for this forum) supports my belief in being nice to people. I just think about the circumstances more these days before I act.

cheers

Hachiman

[cacunn]

II hope to repay the kindness someday and I hope that I pass the spirit of the giving on in my everyday behavior!

IMHO Ramdom Acts of Kindness (RAK) should always be paid forward. True RAK it is not done for repayment from the person you are being kind to but to repay someone for their past RAK.

I work in a Government office with a lot of contractors. Many of them are self-employeed subcontractors. One day I over heard one of the contractors saying that he had not been paid by his prime contractor and he wasn't sure if he could put gas in his car. Having recently purchased a house and my money was tight but not this tight. I wrote out a check for $50 and left it on his desk. I would have perferred to have left cash but don't carry that much. It was not much but got him through the next couple of days.

[Erisianmonkey]

This has put me in mind of a speech written by Robert A. Heinlein. I think it should be shared (The remainder of the post is not written by me):

This I Believe by Robert A. Heinlein

"I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters
so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I
believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that
their virtues far outweigh their faults. "Take Father Michael
down our road a piece. I'm not of his creed, but I know that
goodness and charity and lovingkindness shine in his daily
actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I'm in trouble, I'll go to
him."

"My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out
of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee--no prospect
of a fee--I believe in Doc.

"I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our
town saying, 'I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no
exception. I've found the same ready charity everywhere. But for
the one who says, 'To heck with you - I got mine,' there are a
hundred, a thousand who will say, "Sure, pal, sit down."

"I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers I can step
up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or
a truck will stop and someone will say, 'Climb in Mac - how far
you going?'

"I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with
crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest, decent,
kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up.
Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It
is buried in the obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime.
I believe in the patient gallentry of nurses and the tedious
sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending
fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every
home in the land.

"I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around
you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work.
From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were
built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their
bones.

"I believe that almost all politicians are honest. . .there are
hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their
level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If
this were not true we would never have gotten past the 13
colonies.

"I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of
endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I
believe in -- I am proud to belong to -- the United States.
Despite shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places,
our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices
and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black,
red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability,
and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and
sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human
being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our
teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but
that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this
hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the
opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure.
Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the
stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his
insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble
essential decency.

"This I believe with all my heart."

Robert A. Heinlein wrote this item in 1952. His wife, Virginia Heinlein,
chose to read it when she accepted NASA's Distinguished Public Service
Medal on October 6, 1988, on the Grand Master's behalf (it was a posthumous
award).

Mrs. Heinlein received a standing ovation.

[James MacMillan]

The whole Random Act of Kindness thing is one of my private joys. But for me it is also combined with the anonymity (spelling?) of the act.

I belong to an underground group of men who really have fun with this whole idea. But again, for us it's really heavy on the doing things without the recipient knowing who did it. We don't seek credit, or publicity, and I even thought long and hard about posting our activities here. Our group routinely pools our funds and does some pretty neat things. It's a hoot!

Most of us here are lucky enough to always have a spare $10 or $20 bucks in our sporran. Think of the fun that you can have with that money.

The joy that I recieve in spending that $10 or $20 on a RAK is far more valuable to me than the folded piece of paper tucked away in my sporran.

Places where this kind of activity can be practiced are easy to find: Dry Cleaners; Drive through dinners; Toll booths; virtually any thing with a line.

Individual activities can also include mowing a lawn, shovelling a walk, racking leaves. Group activities for us have included painting a house, rebuilding a fence, painting out grafiti, trimming bushes - the hard part for these bigger activities is doing things when the person or persons are not there, because the anonymity (I need to get spell checker) is of great importance to us and me.

The good feeling that I/we gain, can last for days and even weeks. Even typing this small piece has given me a renewed warm glow.

[Colin]

I try to do a RAK at least once a day. Ie. a quarter in the meter that is about to expire, etc.

[turpin]

A forum member sent me a used fur coat to recycle into sporrans, and another sent me some ivory bits to make into buttons, incuding pre-CITES elephant, Walrus, and (get this) mammoth. I'm almost afraid to work it. (almost)

[Wompet]

I've benefitted once or twice, and I try to do them - but I'm not going to tell you about them.

The whole Random Act of Kindness thing is one of my private joys. But for me it is also combined with the anonymity of the act.

[James MacMillan]

I've benefitted once or twice, and I try to do them - but I'm not going to tell you about them.

Oh - So that was you!!!!