Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Random Acts of Kindness

It's a Friday night. My DH is late (not unusual), I have to get going to meet a friend for dinner and a movie. Ah Snap! I'm almost out of gas. So I wheel into my favorite gas station. Duh! It's Friday at rush hour. Yep, every bay is full--except one. So I pull carefully around and position myself to slide into that bay with my gas tank on the correct side. The truck behind me missed something in translation and pulled in from the other side just before I got there. Drat!

Fortunately another bay opened up at the other end of the island and I managed to get there before anyone else. Of course, I cursed under my breath as I slid my debit card through the reader. "Remove Nozzle" comes up on the screen--before the request for my PIN. What's up with that? I push the DEBIT/PAY OUTSIDE button. "PrePaid $25.00" flashes across the screen. HUH?

From behind me, walking from the direction of the cashier/shop, a man comes towards me with his hand out in a conciliatory gesture. "I just wanted to apologize for bumping you out of that bay. I didn't realize you meant to pull in there. So...Sorry." Then he scurried over to his truck. Meanwhile, my little rig is gratefully drinking $25.00 worth of gas, gas that I'm pretty sure is not coming out of my debit account.

I'm dazed and unsure and in a hurry to eat. (I get crazy when I don't eat!). So I hop in my car and drive away, still picking through the details of the little scenario that had just played out at my favorite gas station. Holy Cow! Did that man just buy me $25.00 worth of gas because he misread my parking maneuvers? And at a time when my bank account in is a coma! I'm stunned. Flat out stunned.

You just never know what good can come. Have faith that there are people out there who care about how their actions affect other people, even if it's only a misunderstanding. So I stuff those curses back in my mouth and swallow hard. Now it's my turn to offer a random act of kindness.

6 comments:

  1. HOLY COW!

    I once tried that random act of kindness thing by paying for the meal ordered by the people in the car behind me in a drive-thru. I thought for sure the lady in the next car would order lunch (it was about 1 p.m.). She only ordered a drink. I tried though. :-D

    What a kind man.

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  2. WoW! What a great story. And how wonderful for you and your bank account.

    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. That's great. I'm going to admit, I'm not that nice. Grateful? I think not. He took your spot. What if he made you late for some really important meeting with an agent or editor and now that you've had to go find another pump, you lose out on that opportunity.

    Does his $25 really make up for that?

    (k, you get that I'm kidding, right?)

    ... why do I feel like I've just messed around with my karma?

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  4. You just happened to be at the right spot at the right time although it felt like the wrong time for you when you got bumped. It's nice to know that there are actually people out there who do kind things. Pay it forward - that's the motto -

    I read about one of those paying for the person behind you meals in a drive-thru recently and it caused a long line of people - and was hours of serving - heard it was about 100 cars that came through where each of the previous drivers had paid for the person behind them - or some didn't but for the most part they did -

    You will find the time to do a random act of kindness and then you won't feel so bad about the cursing you did. - Have fun - E :)

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  5. Stories like that restore my faith in humanity. How nice!

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