What act of kindness did you show today?

sidneykidney · 10-01-2008, 11:35 PM

At SRP we pride ourselves on our gentlemanly conduct. And to me part of that is kindness. I'm not talking about politeness like saying please and thank you. I'm not meaning letting someone in front of you in a queue. I mean acts of kindness that you go out of your way to do.

Let me be clear here. Many people do jobs which might be seen as 'kind' jobs. Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers... all are caring professions but at the end of the day all are paid jobs. You get money for the work you do, there is incentive for you. I'm not even meaning voluntary work. Perhaps you work unpaid in a charity shop or something. This is very commendable and I take my hat off to you, but thats not what i'm talking about.

The kind of thing i'm talking about are acts of kindness that are spur of the moment things, things that you go out of your way to do. Perhaps nobody else would do it or even think of doing it. You remember good old fashioned empathy dont you? Looking after your fellow man because you could? Let me tell you my example which I hope illustrates my point.

Today I was coming back from Glasgow to my parents house in Cumbernauld. I've been travelling a long way today and as some of you may know I have done my back in recently. This has kept me flat on my back for nearly a week. Today was the first day I was out and moving. I had a heavy backpack on and had been around Glasgow most of the day. It was around 9pm as I passed through Condorrat, a subur of Cumbernauld. The bus stopped and the doors opened to let a guy and a dog on.

The guy told the driver that he had been on the preceeding bus and the driver had let the dog on thinking it was his, which it was not. When the man got off the driver insisted he take the dog too. The man reluctantly did so because the driver was going to chuck the dog off either way. The man then had to wait for my bus to come along and ask if anyone could take the dog to the police station.

And that is what I did. The police station was out of my way, my back was in pain and it was late at night. But I looked at the poor dog who was obviously terrified and heavily pregnant and thought that I was still better off than she was. I offered to take the dog to the police station.

The lady who met me there took her in and said that the dog warden would pick her up tomorrow and that she would be taken to a dog shelter to be rehomed. I hope that things turn out OK for the pooch but I guess i'll never know.

So this is my question to you ladies and gents. What act of kindness, what moment of generosity have you shown recently? Tell me all about it. I dont believe it is bragging or boasting because kindness is something which should be encouraged and shared. So tell me, what have you done?

icedog · 10-01-2008, 11:50 PM

I heard somewhere that good deeds don't count if you tell anyone about them.

sidneykidney · 10-01-2008, 11:57 PM

Dont count? Count towards what? I put a huge effort into starting this thread icedog. I thought it might start something really nice. Seems not.

joke1176 · 10-02-2008, 12:08 AM

Hey now, as someone who gets paid to help people all day long, I don't think it's fair to exclude us from acts of kindness.

We may get paid for it, but doing it with feeling counts IMHO.

sidneykidney · 10-02-2008, 12:23 AM

You know what, forget it.

JMS · 10-02-2008, 12:36 AM

Don't forget it Sydney! Mr. Icedog tried the same thing with my cubscout thread! Don't let it get under your skin. I gave a flower to a rather depressed looking lady and gave away three dozen chicken eggs from my own chickens! Not much I know, but lets get this thread rolling!

sidneykidney · 10-02-2008, 12:43 AM

Thank you Mark! At last! You know what I mean it seems. despite my best literary efforts it seems people didnt even care about the dog! I dont want a well done for what I did. I dont want a pat on the back. I want to make you smile and see there is some kindness in the human race still. If you read my initial post and your first thought was 'what about me, where is MY credit?' then perhaps you are the reason why people need to smile more.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMS

I gave a flower to a rather depressed looking lady and handed gave away three dozen chicken eggs from my own chickens! Not much I know, but lets get this thread rolling!

Thats EXACTLY what i'm talking about. Well done you! Who's next?

JMS · 10-02-2008, 12:47 AM

Ahem...It's Mark Sir.

joke1176 · 10-02-2008, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

Thank you James! At last! You know what I mean it seems. despite my best literary efforts it seems people didnt even care about the dog! I dont want a well done for what I did. I dont want a pat on the back. I want to make you smile and see there is some kindness in the human race still. If you read my initial post and your first thought was 'what about me, where is MY credit?' then perhaps you are the reason why people need to smile more.

Hey man, take a breather! Remember to look at icedog's header... I think he was just prodding you gently.

Anyhow, taking the time to actually talk to (and listen to) and elderly stroke patient can really make their day.
A smile and a firm handshake with an old man who thinks nobody cares about him can be a beautiful thing...even in the US healthcare system.

Quick Orange · 10-02-2008, 02:54 AM

I try to pick up trash when I see it on the ground

Doc · 10-02-2008, 07:17 AM

If this thread is about kindness lets try and show a little with each other.

sidneykidney · 10-02-2008, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc

If this thread is about kindness lets try and show a little with each other.

You are correct Doc. But you failed to mention something you did? Is there anything else you want to add?

Bruno · 10-02-2008, 01:12 PM

How about this: I didn't ban certain people, even though they annoyed me to no end

.

It's the beginning of the month, so I'll have to do a wire transfer for supporting my foster daughter in Sierra Leone.

I am generally a person who does things as opportunities present themselves, in which case I do what needs doing. Not that I always enjoy it, but I simply can't see myself not helping out.
My wife sometimes calls me something that would translate to johnny do-good when she finds out that yet again I gave money to some charity or other, or when I am late because I did something that needed doing.

EDIT: the most silly thing I did to date was to bring small wounded birds out of my garden to the bird shelter, 25 miles away.

sidneykidney · 10-02-2008, 01:32 PM

Bravo sir! I salute you.

icedog · 10-02-2008, 02:30 PM

I won't report any act of kindness I may have done. Perhaps I am unkind. However, I can tell you of the kindness of others. How's this:

I was renting a second floor apartment in a three family house with my first wife and her two daughters. At about 0300 on a very cold, early January morning I heard a man's voice, in my apartment shouting, "Get out, get out the house is on fire!" Sure enough when I looked out my bedroom door I could see down the hallway to see the entire back side of the building was ablaze. Long story short, I got the kids, wife and our collection of parrots out of the house alive. The guy who woke me up was on his way to open his coffee shop at the train station when he saw the fire from the highway a mile away! The kid's bedroom was in the back of the house. If that man hadn't woke us, the kids may very well have perished.

How's that?

Bruno · 10-02-2008, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icedog

I won't report any act of kindness I may have done. Perhaps I am unkind. However, I can tell you of the kindness of others. How's this:
...
Long story short, I got the kids, wife and our collection of parrots out of the house alive.

Kind of a contradiction here

jockeys · 10-02-2008, 03:14 PM

I let my enemies enjoy another day of life. Kind of a rare thing for me to do, but I was in a good mood.

icedog · 10-02-2008, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno

Kind of a contradiction here

I felt that was my duty. Trust me, there were times when I would have thrown them all into the fire, espescially the wife.

Once she was choking on a piece of steak and I gave her the Heimlich Maneuver. She coughed out the meat and resumed breathing. Immediatly I realized I should have tried the Kick her in the Face Maneuver or the Hold Her Head Underwater Maneuver but it was too late.

Milton Man · 10-02-2008, 06:00 PM

I didn't do anything special for people in the last week or so, but certain "kind" things I did that made me feel good (and maybe made someone's life just a little bit easier):
- Let someone cut into line in traffic even though they were in the wrong lane trying to by-pass the traffic.
- Helped out a colleague with some work that she was behind on even though we all have full workloads.
- I recently cut down a cedar on my property and only realized once it hit the ground that it contained two small chicks. I got the chicks back in the nest, and then placed the nest in an adjacent tree. When the stupid parents couldn't find the nest, I moved it to my water hose holder roughly where the tree was, and the parents took care of the chicks there until they were grown enough to fly away.

Nothing earth shattering, but it made me feel good - and hope that it made the others feel a bit better too.

Mark

p.s. SidneyKidney - I really like the thread - thank you for starting it.