Tag Archives: random act of kindness

Day 28 – Picked Up Someone’s Hat off the Sidewalk

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Today was gross, weather-wise that is.  I left my apartment after work in a downpour and headed to my buddy’s house for a ride to NH.  On the sidewalk about a block from my apartment I came across a women’s winter hat lying in the middle of the sidewalk.  Initially I walked right by it lugging my hiking backpack with my headphones in my ears.  After a few steps I stopped, turned around, and scanned the both sides of the sidewalk looking for a hat-less person who may have dropped theirs on the ground.  Not seeing anyone, I went back and picked up the hat and put it on a fence post.  Hopefully it was displayed prominently enough that it would be recognized, but out of the way enough so that no one would step on it.  It must have recently been dropped because it was still in good (yet soggy) condition.

The pre-January Life Experiment in me would have just walked by it, “Not my hat, not my problem.”  However, today I stopped to look around, pick it up, and get it off the sidewalk so in case the person came back looking for it, they’d find it in good condition, not ruined as it would have been had it stayed on the sidewalk.  In Maine this is something I definitely would have noticed and done something about but for some reason I ignore these types of things in Boston with the “Not my ___, not my problem” type of attitude.  This month I’ve been breaking out of that attitude quite a bit and I hope my new attitude is one that sticks in my post-January life.

Day 27 – Paid Someone’s Bill at a Dunkin Donuts Drive-Thru

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We spent the entire day ice climbing in NH and on the way back we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee. We usually stop at White Mountain Bagel because they’re both awesome and local, however, they closed at 3pm so we opted for D&D literally across the street. While in line I saw that someone was at the drive-thru waiting at the window. I first asked the cashier what the order was for the car waiting outside. It was around $3 so I told her to put their bill on my card and then to tell the car that it was a random act of kindness.

It was cool to hear the conversation between the Dunkin Donuts cashier and the driver because I could only hear the cashier, “No you don’t have to pay for it. No, someone inside paid it for you. No I don’t think they know you, it was a random act of kindness.” I felt solid about this one because the driver truly seemed perplexed and not expecting it, definitely a random act. I also liked the reaction of my two new friends who I had ice climbed with that day. It’s one thing to help someone who is truly in need, that makes a lot of sense. However, to see someone randomly pick up the tab for someone else, literally for no reason, shocked them a bit I think. They weren’t ready for it, but they totally understood after I explained the life experiment to them.

The last time I paid someone’s coffee bill I was in northern Maine (read: pretty much Canada) and it seemed to go over well so I was really interested in trying it somewhere else to see what the reaction was.  The reaction seemed similar from what I could tell except that this time I was with my friends instead of my family so it was definitely a different experience.  Maybe some exposure to random acts of kindness will lead them to do their own random acts, or at least better recognize situations that warrant kind acts themselves, random or not.

Day 23 – Blind Navigation on the MBTA

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A few days ago I saw a new person on the daily commute getting off at the same stop as I do.  Usually it’s pretty easy to tell who is new because it’s typically the same 12-15 people who commute to work everyday and get off at my stop.  These are the same 12-15 people I met during my “One Conversation per Day on Public Transit” month in September.  This man in particular was especially noticeable because he was blind and had an absolutely gorgeous German Shepard puppy (1-2 years old) as a seeing-eye-dog.

He got off the train and it was snowing, I noticed he was just standing there on the platform.  I was going to go over to him and ask if he needed help but one of the other commuters beat me to it.  I overheard him say he was fine and that he was just waiting for a coworker to come pick him up.  I found out that he works for the city’s Police Department.  I’m not sure what exactly he does but I’m sure I’ll find out.

Today I saw him again but not until we got back into the city.  We were about to get off at the same stop.  I let him go ahead of me and he gingerly walked down the stairs to get off the train and came uncomfortably close to stepping between the train and the platform.  A few of us, including the conductor, noticed that he was going to step short so we kind of yelled to step farther and he readjusted and made the landing.  His dog is also very young so he’s a bit jittery and wanted to sniff out the pigeons that hang out in the station so the dog definitely didn’t help him stabilize on the stairs.  I’m glad he made it down in one piece though.

When I got off the train I asked him if he needed help in getting where he was going.  He said, “Sure thing, just going to get on another commuter rail.”  I remember thinking to myself, “Holy crap, this guy takes two commuter rails to get to work, AND he’s blind?!”  What an amazing guy, it’s hard enough to navigate the MBTA as a sighted person, let alone make a commuter rail transfer (never obvious because the tracks can change from day to day).  So he grabbed my elbow and we walked through the station up and down large sets of stairs and I brought him to his train platform.  I cannot imagine having to do this blind every single day.  Hopefully his dog settles down and gets used to the routine.  However, even if his dog gets used to it, the tracks can often change so it’ll be hard for him to know which track the train will arrive on and then how to get to that platform.

We talked about our jobs, his dog, and various other things as we walked.  I was really impressed by this guy.  I was just blown away by his positive attitude, fearlessness, and confidence.  He was happy as a clam to be working for the Police Department even if it meant navigating Boston Public Transit with a rowdy puppy as a seeing-eye-dog.  Normally I would have let him do his thing and not offered to help, figuring that if he’s blind in the city then he can obviously fend for himself.  This might be true, I’m sure he can take care of himself, however, I’m also sure that he was glad when someone offered him a hand so he didn’t have to navigate himself.  If I were blind I would take great pride in being able to successfully navigate the MBTA but I would definitely say yes if someone randomly offered to help make it easier.

Day 22 – RelayRides for Groceries

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We got back to Boston from two days of climbing sore, tired, hungry, and happy.  Immediately after returning to civilization, a few of us gave a winter climbing safety seminar to students from the Tufts Mountain Club.  There was no better way to teach this topic than to show up all geared out from a weekend of climbing.  After this meeting I had planned to hang out with Sarah.  She just moved into a new house and has been complaining about not having any food b/c without a car it’s sometimes hard to get to a grocery store.  She has some basics but nothing for a serious meal.  However, after a weekend of being out in the cold I wasn’t exactly psyched about going on a grocery shopping adventure.  I was more interested in a beer and a nap.  However, I knew that it wouldn’t take much effort and it would make her really happy, so it would be a win-win for everyone if I brought her shopping.  I offered to use Zipcar or RelayRides to take her to Trader Joes.

 

 

Both companies do car sharing by the hour only Zipcar has a fleet of new(ish) cars parked in strategic locations throughout the city while RelayRides is peer-peer car sharing, so you are renting someone else’s car by the hour (the Myers Bridges ENFJ in me makes me like this community sharing model better).  To read up about how this process works, both as a car borrower and a car lender, check out their website, it’s actually a quite ingenious concept. We looked up Zipcars in the area but due to the last minute nature of our grocery shopping expedition, the only cars available were $10.75/hour and I didn’t feel great about spending $11 to go to the grocery store.  Usually there are $8 cars available of you reserve them ahead of time, but today we were in a time crunch.  Then I realized that I had $25 of free driving credit with RelayRides as I am a new member and hadn’t done any driving yet.   For all intents and purposes, the process is exactly the same as Zipcar.  You login online, put in your location and your timeframe, and search for cars that are conveniently close and in the right price range.

I found a brand new Honda Civic right down the street.  I just had to hold my card to the sensor on the windshield and the car unlocked itself.  We managed to make it to and from Trader Joes in less than an hour, spending only $6 of my $25 of free driving credit.  So I didn’t have to spend any money and I was able to help Sarah stock her kitchen with food.  While searching for cars online I found out that someone has a really nice convertible up for rent on RelayRides (they provide bomber insurance apparently).  So once the weather gets a bit warmer I plan to do some cruising around with the top down.  The best part about it is that the car is someone else’s!  Win for me.

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Me outside of Trader Joe's in my climbing getup with two of our own shopping bags. Look at us being all green and stuff :)

Sarah was grateful that I used my random act of kindness on her today.  She came up with the suggestion for next month’s experiment that I should repeat this month’s experiment only do random acts of kindness for her every day.  I said I’d think about it :)