Hey you, yes you with the face and the hair. There's a chance that you are a human being (unless you are Ghoti the Beta fish to whom I tried to teach the alphabet--in which case, congratulations, your hard work has paid off). So as a fellow human being, I'd like to tell you that I think you're really cool. That thing you're doing with your hair? Lovely. That witty thought you kept to yourself, for fear only you would find it amusing? It was hilarious. And no, those jeans do not make you look fat.
This is all quite easy to say on the internet--for one thing, you don't see that I'm rocking my "I just woke up hair" and the "too poor for makeup" look. Being hidden behind a screen makes it a hundred times either to be both extra nice and extra mean to people. I mean, just taking a short stroll on Facebook and YouTube, I see comments such as "you're a total 10; I'd tap that" (though without the semicolon, seeing as that's far too literary for social networking), followed by "YOU SAID YOU'RE INSTEAD OF YOUR! UR WORTHLESS! AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE TO HUMANITY!" Imagine if you had strolled into a restaurant, told your waitress you'd "tap that" and then told some restaurant patrons that because they had slipped on some grammar rules, they were failures at life?
I think you'd whip up a nice plate of police calls and "mentally unstable" labels. Goes great with pancakes.
We seem to have lost the art of the middle ground--where you walk up to a stranger, say or do something nice, and leave without thinking you're a total creep. I'm all for saying nice things on the internet. But that doesn't replace Acts of Random Kindness (or ARK). And there's nothing like giving or receiving a few nice gestures that makes that post-coffee run seem just a little more bearable.
Yesterday, I had this idea that it was enjoyable to walk in the rain sans umbrella or raincoat (I'll leave that to you to decide if that's due to losing said umbrella and raincoat). I was mistaken. Walking alongside Atherton is already a bit of an ordeal, but add in the water cars tend to splash at you, and you end up with the drowned rat look. So, getting nice and rained on, I noticed a car slow down next to me. A man unearthed an umbrella, stuck it out the window, and said "here." I somehow still convinced myself that it was still more fun to walk without an umbrella, but that's not the point, guys. The point is (and I do have one) that this man was completely willing to give up his prized rain protector of choice just to help out a complete stranger.
A few hours following the umbrella incident, my friends and I decided to dress up and go bowling (like normal people). Being "those people" we carried the exact karma that made our bowling station just stop working before laying down a new set of pins. Like, ten times. And each time, the same guy had to sprint down the runway and fix our station. So after our friend won a stuffed bear (who I affectionately coin "Snuffleupagus"), we decided to give this guy the bear as a thank you. He was mighty appreciative, as every grown man should be when he gets a new stuffed animal.
And so, I present a rest-of-the-month challenge: Acts of Random Kindness. They don't have to be huge gestures...Just something to show a fellow human that they're appreciated. It can be intimidating to talk to a stranger, but having a purpose to do something nice for them can help with the awkward factor. If you guys can, post pictures of your Random Kindnesses; it'll be a bonding moment. D'awww.
Happy Wednesday!
Namaste.
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