Random Acts of Kindness
I wished I'd thought of that idea! I'm just marveling at the Common Ground segment featuring Michael Swaine's "Mending Library" in the Tenderloin section of San Francisco. Of course, if I had thought of the idea, I would not have been able to carry it out because I don't know how to sew. But perhaps because I can't sew, I can really appreciate how kind he is to make himself and his sewing machine available to fix a hole in a jacket or hem a pair of shorts for someone who can't sew either and can't afford a tailor.
When my family lived in Pakistan, we noticed that there were people at little tables in the bazaar who wrote letters in English for people. One of the characters in a favorite movie, Central Station, does that in the railroad station. I'm imagining people with laptop computers and portable printers setting themselves up on a street corner and offering to write a letter for someone. Or how about using that wireless connection to download a form someone needs?
My husband and I are not handy, so we count among the kindnesses we've received having a neighbor help us hang a bulletin board, take out the Christmas tree (it had to be sawed into pieces first), and repot some plants. A kindness I can do is help clip a cat's claws, or pill a cat, or take one to the vet.
Sometimes an act of kindness requires a sacrifice and a shift—doing something that we would not normally do, reaching out to someone we would not normally interact with. But those little courtesies we do without thinking—opening a door or smiling to someone in the elevator—count, too. And so do the little extras we can do using our talents. We can look for one specific thing we can do that a neighbor can't and make that our project.