Act of Kindness Foiled

This update’s focus is on the difficulty sometimes involved in doing random acts of kindness. It is a sad commentary on about how mistrusting and wary some of us have become, so wary that we won’t trust a stranger to do something kind for nothing in return. Then there is a spirit of just plain old mean-heartedness and I guess that is also one of the negative trends in today’s world that random acts of kindness are up against.

At a local convenience store, I was in line behind a woman that I saw park her older van at one of the gas pumps out front. She got to the counter and proceeded to very quietly plead with the cashier to set the pump for $3.00 (not a typo-just three dollars’ worth) of gas which she promised emphatically she would pay for when she came back from Kingsland. For readers not in the St. Marys area, Kingsland is 9 miles down the road. I say the woman tried to ask quietly because even though she didn’t intend it, I overheard. Three dollars, I thought, here is an inexpensive random act of kindness I can afford. When I reached the counter I put my purchases up for scanning and said that I would also like to pay for the woman’s gas. The clerk would not take my money. She flat out refused with no explanation. I’d like to think she planned on putting her own the three dollars in the register as her own random act of kindness but the vibe she gave off was more like she felt the woman who was getting the gas needed to be held accountable for the money. I had no choice except to count this attempt as foiled.

The next situation where my attempt at completing a random act of kindness was almost foiled involved crocheted baby hats. I crochet them and sometimes matching diaper covers too. I have sold lots of hats and given away a bunch too. The hat in question was a Minnie Mouse hat. I had sold one new mom a Minnie hat and diaper cover set but when I looked in on the baby in her car seat I realized the hat was much too big. The new mom assured me that her baby would grow into it (wise beyond her young years), paid me for the set including a tip (a first for me), and departed. I went home and made a mini Minnie hat that I knew would fit the baby now and wanted to give it to her so I renewed contact on Face Book. FB is where we originally met after I’d posted a picture of the Minnie hat. She politely declined my offer stating she had no recollection of ordering anything else. I assured her that she was correct about not ordering another hat and included that I just wanted to give her a hat. This was followed by several days of silence that allowed my imagination to decide that she must have figured I was some kind of FB stalker-grandma. I figured if I sent her another message she might be justified in thinking that but I decided to come clean and explain about the random acts of kindness I was working on and include one more offer of the hat. Honesty and transparency was the best policy for this wary mom and I was finally able to deliver the hat. This turned out to be an act that was not foiled.

I still plan to continue toward my goal of completing two random acts of kindness each week, and, yes, I am running a bit behind as usual, but I’m gaining insight. The world needs more random acts of kindness!