A few months ago, I wrote how small acts of kindness could soften the blow of a rotten day. My truck had broken down and over the course of 45 minutes as I waited for AAA service to arrive, several people had offered water, a jump and other things that served to lessen my frustration and make the wait more bearable.
I’d encouraged readers to send me stories of how they or others engaged in acts of kindness. Many obliged.
J.D. wrote how he found two $20 bills in the change dispenser at his local Safeway grocery store in Santa Rosa, California. He looked around to see if he could identify a customer leaving, but could not. Instead of pocketing the cash, he found a clerk and asked her to put the $40 in an envelope to give the person who’d left it in case they returned to claim the money.
At a small dinner party she gave with her wife for “two old friends, two newish friends, and two brand-new friends,” A.B. was embarrassed after a bit of food lodged in her windpipe and she spit it onto the floor. “A newish friend jumped up, got a dish towel and got busy cleaning up the mess.” A.B. was mortified and started to apologize, but her friend just kissed A.B. on the cheek and said, “You have nothing to apologize for.” It was “a private, quiet moment,” A.B. wrote, but it “was a moment of grace I will never forget.”
When B.M. and four members of her family, all in their 80s, were on the way home from a funeral in Pine Creek, Wisconsin, they stopped at a restaurant. When they went to leave, they discovered they had a flat tire on the driver’s side back tire. “Our server came out with a little air pump and pumped the tire up,” wrote B.M. The tire didn’t hold the air, so the server ran across the street to a convenience store, picked up a plug repair kit and started to work on repairing the tire. Another diner who had just picked up his takeout order told B.M. he would bring his food home and return to help. He returned in his truck with a portable air compressor that they used to pump up the repaired tire. “The man jumped in his truck and left before we could thank him,” wrote B.M. “We have never been so thankful.”
In July, L.G. gained emergency custody of her newborn grandchild. “I am older so I didn’t have any of the necessary things to bring a baby home from the hospital,” wrote L.G. She posted requests on neighborhood websites asking for help. “It was amazing the support I received. Many items were donated by complete strangers: a bassinet, clothes, diapers, bottles, wipes, bouncy seats, blankets, lotions and soaps." Her neighbors “really came through for a grandma in need.”
Finally, V.C. writes that he tries “to do something nice for someone daily.” It might be giving another car the right of way, “or just keeping my mouth shut instead of making an unkind remark.” V.C. doesn’t consider himself a saint. “The world is so frustrating and sad right now that I just try to make it a little better.”
Just trying to make the world a little better with a small act of kindness strikes me as the right thing to do.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of "The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
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(c) 2022 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
2 comments:
Thanks for this column, Jeffrey. VC’s comments reminded me of a recent exchange I had with a woman in New York who is a member of the same national peripheral neuropathy group that I’m in. She suffers from a great deal of physical pain and mental anguish, so in our phone call I mentioned the gospel song “Brighten the Corner Where You Are” and subsequently emailed her the lyrics and a link to Ella Fitzgerald’s musical version of it. She responded with a very enthusiastic and grateful email, Both of our corners were brightened that day.
Following up, today I had to see an orthopedist about a problem that required a first-time visit to him a couple of weeks ago. While there then, I was impressed with the three people who took care of me, so I took home a form the facility had to provide positive feedback on the staff (preferring to do so at my leisure). I filled it out and returned it today, handing it to the main assistant when he called my name in the waiting room. Upon leaving the doctor’s office later, I passed by the young female assistant whom I had mentioned in my write-up. I can’t remember seeing a brighter smile and greeting from anybody ever, let alone someone I had spent such a short period of time with. I assume she saw the comments I made.
In my working days I used to say “Unsolicited positive feedback is hard to come by.” That’s still true, apparently.
Again, two corners brightened. ☺
“Just trying to make the world a little better with a small act of kindness strikes me as the right thing to do” is right on the money. Most of your readers probably do the right thing already (most of the time), but I salute you for raising our levels of consciousness.
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