Author Topic: Random Acts Of Kindness  (Read 15104 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Random Acts Of Kindness
« on: August 09, 2019, 06:07:13 PM »

Online Roy H.

  • Forums Manager
  • James Naismith
  • *********************************
  • Posts: 58539
  • Tommy Points: -25636
  • Bo Knows: Joe Don't Know Diddley
My wife took our two kids out to dinner tonight, and I guess my 4 year old was acting up a bit. Shortly thereafter, a stranger approached, left a $100 bill on the table, and said “Jesus loves you”.

We’ll be paying it forward. My wife texted me about the experience, and it touched my cynical heart.

Anybody have similar stories?


I'M THE SILVERBACK GORILLA IN THIS MOTHER——— AND DON'T NONE OF YA'LL EVER FORGET IT!@ 34 minutes

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2019, 06:31:42 PM »

Offline Csfan1984

  • Don Nelson
  • ********
  • Posts: 8825
  • Tommy Points: 289
A stranger replied, good morning. When I said, good morning. This morning.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2019, 07:34:41 PM by Csfan1984 »

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2019, 06:58:21 PM »

Offline GreenFaith1819

  • NCE
  • Reggie Lewis
  • ***************
  • Posts: 15402
  • Tommy Points: 2785
President Trump seemed to be warming up to Colin Kapernick a bit, as well.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27355790/trump-kap-get-job-good-enough

This is about one of the nicest things he's said about the young man.

Here's hoping that Colin finds his way onto an NFL roster VERY soon. He can help teams win games.

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2019, 07:34:22 PM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

  • Satch Sanders
  • *********
  • Posts: 9666
  • Tommy Points: 324
That's pretty awesome, Roy. TP for sharing.

Here's one that really affected my wife and I (it's a long story; my apologies for that):

In June 2017, my Mom died of cancer, so my wife and I prepared to travel from California to Maine for the funeral. What unfolded next was a crazy series of gut-punches and blessings.

First, we didn't have the money to fly to Maine. It's always an expensive ticket, but on super-short notice it was a thousand bucks a ticket ... and we needed two. Shortly after hearing the news about my Mom dying, the pastor at my former church in Maine called me to say that the church trustees had quickly convened and made a decision: the tickets were on them. So generous.

Second, the day before we left, my wife’s Daddy and stepmom dropped in unexpectedly and gave us $500 for the trip. Wow. We were so grateful.

Next: We were supposed to fly out of Ontario, California, the morning before the funeral and land in Portland, Maine, around 10:30 that evening, but when we got to Ontario, we were told that our flight, which was routing through a backed-up San Francisco airport, would be delayed by several hours. But good news—there was a flight from LAX to Portland, via Chicago, if we wanted, so we took that, drove like madmen to get to LAX on time, then flew out toward Chicago. But when we got to Chicago, we discovered that our flight to Portland had been cancelled due to thunderstorms occurring from the Midwest to the Northeast—not delayed, cancelled. And my Mom's funeral was at 11 the next morning.

We had no other choice but to wait in line at the United customer service counter, which was a long wait, but we got talking with a man and a woman (they were traveling separately, didn't know each other), and we told them about my Mom and the funeral. We finally got up to the counter, and it turned out the only decent option was flying that night from Chicago to Boston, and then we'd worry about Boston-to-Maine later. While the flight was being finalized, the man—who'd gone through the line just ahead of us—came back to us and held out one hand to me. I instinctively held my hand out to his, to receive whatever he had, and was shocked to see a $100 bill in my palm. He said he was sorry about what we were going through and wanted to help out in some way. We thanked him profusely, of course.

The flight from Chicago was delayed by a thunderstorm there, and when we finally took off, it was in a raging thunderstorm. My wife was petrified. But we made it to Boston ... only to discover that United had lost our luggage. So there we were, in Logan airport, with no possessions but what we were wearing and had in our pockets, and no idea what to do next. And there was no flight that would get us to Maine in time for the funeral. We tried to get a local hotel room, but everything was either booked up or well out of our price range, so we had to settle for a hotel 30 minutes south of Boston and had to pay a hefty taxi fee to get there. Oh, and my wife was starting to get sick to her stomach from the stressful flight in the thunderstorm.

We arrived at our hotel around 3:45 a.m., and we felt like crap. And we came to the difficult realization that we weren't going to make it to Mom's funeral. My sister's husband offered to come get us, but it would've been a 7-8-hour round trip for him—on zero sleep, as he hadn't yet gone to bed that night—and we didn't feel comfortable making such a long drive with someone who hadn't slept in more than 24 hours. Also, we had no appropriate clothing (it was all in our lost luggage), and my wife ended up vomiting several times throughout that next day (the day of the funeral), and we didn't want to show up at my Mom's funeral wearing jeans and T-shirts we'd had on for two days straight and have my wife possibly vomit during the funeral. My sister was p---ed (more on that later), but we just didn't want to risk making a scene at the funeral (that's if we even made it to any of the funeral, which was very questionable).

After we slept for a few hours, we did some emergency clothes shopping (we were gonna be at my Dad's for a couple days and had no idea if/when our luggage would be delivered to us) and, with great difficulty, found a car rental place that fit our budget and accepted the form of payment we had available to us at the time. I was worried about facing my family, including my Dad—and before you go thinking he's an ogre, he's not, at all, but I felt like I'd really let him down. Upon arriving at his house, though, he was the picture of grace, just happy that we were safe and able to be there. Things with my sister were fine while we were there, but blew up into a big mess after we'd returned to California a few days later, and our relationship with her hasn't been the same since, but I really feel that we made the right decision. I certainly wish things had turned out differently, but so much happened to us that was beyond our control. And for some reason, my siblings insisted on the funeral happening exactly one week from the day Mom died—at times, I've wanted to say to my sister and brother, "Did you ever stop to consider how long it would take us to prepare for such a trip (we have a special-needs daughter for whom we had to make special arrangements, as well as several pets we had to make sure would be cared for while we were gone)? And did you consider how long it can take to get from California to Maine if there are any travel hiccups?" But I digress.

My main point is that in the midst of so much crap, so much heartache, God showed us much grace—a church giving us money for tickets, a perfect stranger in an airport giving us money, some family members unexpectedly giving us money, my Dad showing SO much grace and understanding. It's been a big challenge for me to mentally and emotionally reframe all those events so that the trauma of them doesn't cause me to have a breakdown, and the unexpected blessings are a big part of that reframing.

And if you read this far ... thank you. I guess I still need to vent about all of that stuff sometimes, and it felt good to write it all out like that.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2019, 11:46:10 AM by rocknrollforyoursoul »
"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"

"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."

— C.S. Lewis

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2019, 07:49:39 PM »

Online Roy H.

  • Forums Manager
  • James Naismith
  • *********************************
  • Posts: 58539
  • Tommy Points: -25636
  • Bo Knows: Joe Don't Know Diddley
Thanks, RnR.  It's good to be reminded that for all the bad in the world -- and there is so much of it -- there are also many people who have grace and humanity.  That was a touching story, and I am hopeful that your siblings can find peace.  I hope you know that your mother didn't need your physically present at her funeral, as you were clearly there in spirit.


I'M THE SILVERBACK GORILLA IN THIS MOTHER——— AND DON'T NONE OF YA'LL EVER FORGET IT!@ 34 minutes

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2019, 08:30:08 PM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

  • Satch Sanders
  • *********
  • Posts: 9666
  • Tommy Points: 324
Thanks, RnR.  It's good to be reminded that for all the bad in the world -- and there is so much of it -- there are also many people who have grace and humanity.  That was a touching story, and I am hopeful that your siblings can find peace.  I hope you know that your mother didn't need your physically present at her funeral, as you were clearly there in spirit.

Thanks, Roy. I appreciate those kind words, especially that last part. My Dad and wife and I were able to go to the cemetery the next day and have our own little memorial service, and it was beautiful. I just hope that someday my sister comes to understand our situation.
"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"

"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."

— C.S. Lewis

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2019, 09:00:33 PM »

Offline Rakulp

  • Jaylen Brown
  • Posts: 533
  • Tommy Points: 78
Random Acts of Kindness is what started my internet name...RAKulp.  It's a belief that we are all going to have different opinions on a LOT of things (i.e., go Celtics, boo Lakers ;) )...but in the end, we are all human beings.

Wondering if you have seen the things online that Bill Pulte has been doing to help people in similar ways?  It's nice to see those who have been blessed with much using it, and in his case, making small, personal acts to help people one at a time.  Nothing wrong with making a multi-digit donation to a particular charity...but there's something about those simple acts that resonate with me personally.

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2019, 09:50:37 AM »

Offline Greenback

  • NCE
  • Jaylen Brown
  • Posts: 734
  • Tommy Points: 63
  • Take away love and the earth is a tomb. ~ Browning
This is a well done video on random acts of kindness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkNvoPtp_os
Everyone wants truth on his side, not everyone wants to be on the side of truth.

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2019, 10:51:52 AM »

Offline celts55

  • Jim Loscutoff
  • **
  • Posts: 2586
  • Tommy Points: 570
Recently my wife and I wanted to attend a concert. As many of you might know, concerts have gotten pretty expensive, but figured we would splurge. I noticed on line that someone had bought tickets they couldn't use and were trying to sell them. I sent a message, but received no reply. The day before the show I get a call. It's the woman with the tickets. She apologizes for not responding sooner and insists we that the tickets for free. All she asks is that we do something nice for someone else when we get a chance, which of course we have done, and will continue to do.
I did video a few songs from the show, and sent them to her. 

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2019, 10:54:02 AM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

  • Satch Sanders
  • *********
  • Posts: 9666
  • Tommy Points: 324
Very cool! What concert was it?
"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"

"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."

— C.S. Lewis

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2019, 12:13:23 PM »

Offline indeedproceed

  • In The Rafters
  • James Naismith
  • *********************************
  • Posts: 42583
  • Tommy Points: 2756
  • You ain't the boss of the freakin' bedclothes.
My wife always once a week pays for the person behind her at Dunkin. She's done it for the entire 15 years we've been together, from when she was a broke college kid to now when she's a broke stay at home mom.

"You've gotta respect a 15-percent 3-point shooter. A guy
like that is always lethal." - Evan 'The God' Turner

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2019, 12:19:49 PM »

Offline slamtheking

  • NCE
  • Red Auerbach
  • *******************************
  • Posts: 31869
  • Tommy Points: 10047
Every Christmas, instead of exchanging gifts between ourselves or family, my wife and I  use the money we would spend on gifts to buy food for the local seniors and drop it off at the Senior Center in town for seniors who have trouble making ends meet to help feed themselves when they're in a bind deciding whether to forego food, medicine, rent or heat in the winter on their limited budgets. 

most rewarding feeling I get every year.

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #12 on: August 27, 2019, 12:52:20 PM »

Offline Amonkey

  • Bailey Howell
  • **
  • Posts: 2053
  • Tommy Points: 203
About 8 years ago, somebody had told me about Jordan's Furniture Enchanted Village (the whole Christmas village thing). I knew that my (then) girlfriend loved that kind of cheesy stuff, especially related to Christmas so I surprised her to a visit there. It was a weeknight, snowing in our crappy car but we made it. She loved the whole scene and we wanted to go on the Polar Express but tickets were already sold out.

This lady came up to us out of nowhere and gave us her tickets. It was the last screening but we made it. Next to us was a kid with down syndrome and his absolutely loved it. The whole thing really reminded me of my own cousin with down syndrome that had passed away earlier in the year. One of the last things I did with her was to go to Disney and she was in love with a 4D show. I became pretty emotional throughout the whole movie.

Anyway, it became a really special memory for me. In the end, we now make sure that every year we go to Jordan's Furniture Enchanted Village as a tradition. I have now married to my girlfriend and we have 2 beautiful kids and every year we make our trek there.
Baby Jesus!

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2019, 02:10:48 PM »

Offline apc

  • Antoine Walker
  • ****
  • Posts: 4310
  • Tommy Points: 437
My wife took our two kids out to dinner tonight, and I guess my 4 year old was acting up a bit. Shortly thereafter, a stranger approached, left a $100 bill on the table, and said “Jesus loves you”.

We’ll be paying it forward. My wife texted me about the experience, and it touched my cynical heart.

Anybody have similar stories?
I am all for acts of kindness but honestly i find it weird that someone will give you a $100 because your kid is acting out.
(or was he hinting you should get a babysitter and leave your kid at home next time  :laugh: :laugh:)
Good for you for paying it forward.

Re: Random Acts Of Kindness
« Reply #14 on: August 27, 2019, 05:09:06 PM »

Offline dannyboy35

  • Don Chaney
  • *
  • Posts: 1939
  • Tommy Points: 104
 I’m a crank so I don’t do many random acts of kindness. Always give more than a 20 percent tip, always polite to people working for me or serving me. I try to defend someone when someone is being weirdly passive aggressive to someone else or being nasty.
   I do other stuff I wouldn’t do ,to be honest ,because of my wife spearheading it. So we give to a few rescue dog organizations and give out all the leftovers the night after Thanksgiving downtown. That’s one I recommend because it’s a Friday night, many families usually have leftovers and it’s pretty cool to meet some nice  people really struggling to not only get done turkey but bunch of fixings with plastic utensils and napkins, gravy etc.  We made my son ( our little dog) into a therapy pup and he’s brought some really cool joy the last 5 years. Yeah, I call him my son. He’s better than most people.