At Present, Every New Day Serves ...
ServiceSpace
--Matthew Fiorello
2 minute read
Dec 23, 2011

 

At present, every new day serves a challenge for me to come up with a random act of kindness (RAK) that is unique -- something that I have not done previously. One tactic that I've been employing is asking people whether they have ideas for RAKs and/or what they would enjoy receiving as a RAK. Today, I asked an older man sitting next to me on the bus whether he had any ideas and whether he'd ever received a RAK. He said no to both, and I felt sad to hear the latter -- that he had never received a random act of kindness from another. So I proceeded to chat a bit with this man, even though he was very closed and untalkative. He eventually revealed that he planned to spend the holidays at home eating, and the way he said this sounded sad. At the end of the ride, I said, "Happy holidays. I offer to you your first random act of kindness," and handed him a Smile Card. He seemed hesitant and asked, "What's this?" I said, "It's a Smile Card," and he took it. I hope this brought some brightness to his life, a man who had never previously been given a RAK! In my view, the symbolic energy of the Smile Card by itself can be a potent tool. Later in the day, this notion was reinforced when I gave a single Smile Card as a gift to a barista who told me that she received no gifts at all for the holidays. Suffice it to say that she was more than pleased to receive the Smile Card, as she waved and excitedly showed it off to another customer shortly thereafter :-).

 

Posted by Matthew Fiorello on Dec 23, 2011


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