Random acts of kindness

(image obtained at damadia.com)

I have been away from blog writing for a while now. Not sure why. Maybe because I have been lazy or have better things to do or simply not having something to write about. Well today something happened that made me want to write about.

I was driving to town for my weekly soccer match. I am no Rooney, but I enjoy running after the ball like a twit. On the way to the sports hall, there is an intersection that has always a bit of a jam there. I was running late and stuck on traffic when suddenly the driver from the car ahead of me gets out of the car and moves away from it. Well, to be honest, the traffic light was red, so in the immediate time, there was no rush, however, a little voice in me immediately started to give out to him. “how dare he leaving the car like that? What if the light turns? We will miss it and I will be late. Eejit…” (this last word is an Irish expression, if you don’t know it, ask and I will do my best to explain it).

While I was following him with my eyes, giving him the angry look, I realised why he left the car and suddenly I felt like a small bitter person, to say the least. On the side walk, trying to cross the street, there was a blind man (not sure if this is PC, so please indulge me for a while) trying to cross the road. It was complicated because the traffic would not slow down and he hadn’t been able to cross it just by listening to the sounds. This task by itself is probably a hard one as that intersection is particularly noisy. So the driver walks to the man and helps him crossing the road. This was quick, did not disturb my journey to the sports hall and a person was able to cross the road safely.

When the man was returning to the car, he had a neutral expression, just like it what he did was the only natural thing to do in that situation. However, none of the people that were walking by the blind man took the initiative to help him. Either they were to busy or just ignoring the situation. And that made me think. How often I came across similar situations and did nothing or just ignored it. I just passed oblivious by such situation and did not even realise it. Only paid attention because there was a possibility that another’s man good deed could have interfered with my schedule.

I would like to finish this post with an enlightened statement, but nothing comes to my mind. Nevertheless, this episode probably does not need such statement. Therefore I am finishing with two notes… Firstly recognising the good deed and thanking this anonymous man from Sligo for teaching me a lesson that I should have learned by now. Secondly, leaving an excerpt of the movie “Pay it forward”.

I know… There is no beer at this pub… But if we had, maybe we would not have these moments of reflection.