A “random act of kindness” is not a new concept. It has been preached about it churches, widely written about and even glorified in Hollywood movies (i.e.,the movie Pay it Forward with the weird/freakish kid from The Sixth Sense).
I realized today that a random act of kindness is something that you need to commit yourself to. Sometimes it is the difference between doing the right thing and doing nothing at all.
To set the stage – Nick and I were driving to the grocery store to stock up on the summer beer and tortilla chip essentials. We pulled into the parking lot and directly ahead of us we saw a homeless man laying face down. Half on the pavement, half on the grass. We stopped the car and stared. After much debate as to whether he was alive or dead, I jumped out of the car and inched toward him, wondering what to do if I discovered a corpse.
Have you ever been at a wake and convinced yourself that you could see the deceased person’s chest rising and falling? This experience had a very similar eerie feeling.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was likely a matter of seconds, I saw his eye’s open. He looked right at me. He was probably wondering to himself what this crazy lady was doing, staring at him with a look of fear and trepidation.
I hightailed it back to the car, but couldn’t shake (and still haven’t) the disturbed feeling. How were we the only ones that stopped to check on him? How did he end up in that place? Why are we so desensitized to sights that would shock anyone from small town USA? I could tell that Nick felt the same way that I did. Ultimately, we ended up placing a deli sandwich and a bottle of SmartWater next to him. He didn’t wake up and an hour later both remained in the same place.
For the past few years we have adopted a family for Christmas through the Woman’s Care Cottage.
With the worsening economy I had been toying with the idea of stopping this tradition. Shame on me. With the image of the homeless man’s face resting in the dirt burned into my mind, I think it will be quite some time before I throw myself a pity party.
”Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” –Anne Herbert
Posted by marcypoz7 
