Whatever happened to spontaneous acts of kindness?
Are you ever on the receiving end of spontaneous acts of kindness and generosity? I had one such moment last week.
I decided my car needed a wash, and not just any wash - a complete overhaul. I wanted to get rid of the 3 week old banana skin squished into the bit between the back seat and the door, and remove the crayon drawing from the side window! So I booked an expensive car detail. Not the sort of thing I would normally blow $80 on, but there you go, it was just one of those days.
So I headed off to the car wash place with my son Ryder. We dropped the car off and decided to go for a walk and get a coffee in the 30 minutes it was going to take to wash my car. We walked along the railway line, over the bridge and down to the closest shops. It was a lovely walk but it took about 15 minutes, so when we got there we decided to get take away coffee and hot chocolate and start the walk back.
As the woman in the cafe was making my coffee I reached into my bag to get my wallet. And guess what? Yep. No wallet. I immediately asked the woman to stop making the coffee and explained I had left my wallet at home. She just smiled, kept making my coffee and told me to come back next time with the money. “Next time” - to a cafe I’ve never been to before! I was pretty impressed with her generosity and I was also aware that Ryder was watching everything, soaking it all in, as kids do in such situations. I was pleased that he could be witness to such an act of kindness and understanding.
On our way back along the railway line, both of us sipping our drinks, I was thinking about the car. It’s one thing to be given a couple of free coffees but an $80 car detail, wash and clean? How would the car wash staff take to my story of no wallet??? Hmmmm?
Anyway, we finally reached our destination and I thanked the guy for the car as it really did look amazing. I then had the awkward moment of explaining that I had left my wallet at home, but that I would go right back there now and bring him the money. He just waved his hand and said “oh anytime, tomorrow, next week, doesn’t matter, just when you are passing.”
As I drove home I was thinking about these acts of generosity. I know that if I was living in a small village somewhere, or in a town where either me or my family were known, that this sort of generosity would be commonplace. Or maybe even if I was in a non-anglo culture, as I remembered my friend Teresa, who lives in Northern Portugal. Her local newsagent gives her the magazines to read each month when they come out, she then brings back the ones she doesn’t want and pays for the ones she is keeping.
But I don’t live in a small village. I live in a city of 3 million people. And it is a city with increasing crime rate and decreasing community trust. So in that context my heart felt warmed by these two strangers who not only showed generosity, they showed trust. I started thinking about how powerful this thing called ‘trust’ is – and how many people don’t have it.
Have you been on the receiving end of enormous trust or generosity lately?
I’d love to hear about it. Write a comment on the blog and share your stories.