Friday, May 21, 2010

Blood, Sweat and Kindness

My brother gave blood today for the first time ever. Even kinder than that, he told me I could take credit for it and count it as my act of kindness, as he was inspired to give because of this project. If one is looking for a way to be kind to a stranger, I think there is not much better you can do than giving blood. As the day went on and no random act presented itself to me, I thought about taking him up on the offer. But it's a slippery slope. I've already taken credit for some of my husbands actions; if I extend it to other family and friends, who knows where it may lead. I may never be kind again.

I considered claiming that I met my kindness quota for the day by NOT losing my cool in the car. While driving my 10 year old son and his friend to yet another birthday party I got quite lost. It became apparent that we were going to be late. The boys in the back tried to help with comments like “My dad never gets lost” and “Why didn't you turn where I told you to?” As I was sweating profusely wondering if we would miss the party all together, it took a fair amount of self control to remember my commitment to kindness. But I did, and we were only 20 minutes late, and an good time was had by all.

Having considered both of these as fodder for the blog, I decided that I would opt not to settle for a rationalization today. I stopped for a coffee later in the afternoon and I gave money to pay for the next persons coffee who came in after I left. It may not be original, as I've written about it once before, but it was a random act of kindness all my own.

No comments:

Post a Comment