Random Acts of Kindness
01.10.99

A few years ago, a group, or groups, of people traveled across the country spray painting a phrase on buildings, overpasses, railroad crossings, whatever. Some called it graffiti, others called it art and inspiration. The phrase was simply:

Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty

Soon enough, "random acts of kindness" was being spouted everywhere... T-shirts, bumper stickers, even out of the mouth of fathead Rosie O'Donnel. How many people actually followed that advice though?

I remember on Oprah after the phrase craze hit, she offered the suggestion of paying the fixed toll ($.35 on the Parkway here in Jersey) for the car behind you. She said that it would probably make you feel good, and the car behind you would appreciate it, even though it's just some change, and maybe that car will do the same for the car behind them at the next toll. Well, I don't know if that's ever happened, but I'll tell you that to have someone speed to catch up to you, to wave, smile, and say thank you, is a nice feeling.

What made me think of writing this today was that I was at Wendy's, and there was a trainee at the register with his boss over his shoulder giving him directions. When I got my change, the trainee had given me $2 extra. I waited till later, tell I could catch him without his boss over his shoulder to give the $2 back to him so he wouldn't get bitched at by his boss. And when I got back to my seat and realized that his boss didn't see me and that the trainee got away with his screw-up because the register receipt and tray would match at the end of the day (provided he didn't make that mistake any more)... I smiled.

I'm not getting into this to toot my own horn or anything. It's not about that. All I'm saying is that practicing these random acts of kindness DOES make you feel good. And maybe they'll make someone else feel good enough to pass along the kindness. And who knows, maybe little by little, things will start to change between people. And if not... at least you've got good karma on your side, right?

One person CAN make a difference.