Random Acts of Kindness and how they Blow the Mind
Sometimes, on rare ocassions, I find myself utterly blown away by something. This...is one of those times. Allow me to explain.
So, I'm taking my trash out today...and it's built up a touch, because it's a long way in our one apartment complex to the dumpster, and I pretty much have to drive it there. So between computer desk wastpaper baskets, bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom (already gathered my my lovely and subtly hinting wife), I've got about six bags. No big deal...just means I had a chore today, besides depositing the paycheck. (Yes, I forgot the litter, dear. My bad.)
I gather the bags together and get out the front door. As I'm turning around to close it (carefully, as I recently fucked up my ankle pretty bad doing so and I'm skittish now), this guy is just coming out of the apartment across from me, a little further down. He's an older man, perhaps in his 60's if I were to guess. Smile on his face, not much hair on his head. Dressed in an old polo shirt and slacks. I smile a little bit to him and pick up the bags, three in each hand.
What he did next baffled me. He...offers to help me carry it to my car, in a thick Baltic accent. I'm stunned internally. I mean, people don't do that anymore. Not in this country, not in this day and age. I smile say it's okay, I've got it, because well, I did...but he insisted. This man, who I've never met in my life, insisted on helping me, for no reason other then the kindness of his heart. Welcome to Mars, folks.
On the way, he just starts telling me about himself...by first saying he's from Afghanistan (which is totally fine with me, but not the way I'd start a conversation in this country for the last six years), and that he's a dentist but has a bad heart so he's home 24 hours a day. And he did it all with an exuberance that just...floored me.
Granted, I don't have associations with my neighbors, so that's probably part of it. Everyone in the complex is pretty private. But that kind of just...I dunno. Not innocence, per se, but just forthright friendliness...I just wasn't prepared for it.
It got me thinking...specifically, about a bumper sticker. "Practice Random Acts of Kindess and Senseless Beauty." I remember when that used to be something that was taken seriously, and wasn't just an ironic punchline. I used to live my life by it, to a degree at least. And I still try every now and then. I give people I walk by smiles and nods, even if I don't know them. The looks I've gotten have been...comical at times. People are surprised by it, and it never fails to amuse me a bit. I'd never been on the other side, though.
Have we gotten so cynical that to believe helping out your fellow man is something shocking? In this post-9/11 world...no, check that. We've all had our loss of innocence moments. The day Kennedy was shot. The day Dr. Martin Luther King was shot. The day the other Kennedy was shot. Lennon. The Challenger explosion. Kurt Cobain. Rodney King. Columbine. 9/11. Abu Ghraib. Hurricane Katrina. Virginia Tech. At some point, we've all had our faith in the world shaken. And then, instead of reinforcing that faith and strengthening it, we've been betrayed by those we looked to for guidance. Bush puts us in a war, and racism rears it's ugly head. People riot and use tragedy as an excuse to profit. Psychos come out of the woodwork and promote their hate agendas. Through it all, we suffer...and our hope for the world dims.
That is, until someone shakes our cynicism. And then we have a chance to re-orient ourselves.
Bad things happen. They always will. But what we must not do, what we must never do, is lose hope in the world, or ourselves. To do so would be to lose the war within each of us, that battle between hope and dispair. This does not mean we hope blindly. We must be realistic. But gods damn it, we must try.
In the midst of writing this, I was reminded, in clear focus, how cruel this world can be. How we can be torn apart by the pain that those we love encounter. And still, I have hope. And I do what I can to extend that hope to others. If their faith is dented, I will lend them mine. I will strengthen those who need it, and I will protect those I love from everything I can. And if I can't, I will help them weather it in every possible way. Because that's who I am. And I wouldn't be anything else for all the money in the world.
Except maybe Johnny Depp.
--Jer