Random Acts of Kindness

I have been collecting articles from magazines for years. This one came from the December 1991 issue of Glamour Magazine's editorial page.

It's titled "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty".

"It's a crisp winter day in San Francisco. A woman in a red Honda, Christmas presents piled in the back, drives up to the Bay Bridge tollbooth. "I'm paying for myself, and for the six cars behind me," she says with a smile, handing over seven commuter tickets.

One after another, the next six drivers arrive at the tollbooth, dollars in hand, only to be told, "Some lady up ahead already paid your fare. Have a nice day."

The woman in the Honda, it turned out, had read something on an index card taped to a friend's refrigerator. "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty." The phrase seemed to leap out at her, and she copied it down.

Another lady said "I thought it was incredibly beautiful," she said, explaining why she's taken to writing it at the bottom of all her letters, "like a message from above."

Now the phrase is spreading, on bumper stickers, on walls, at the bottom of letters and business cards. And as it spreads, so does a vision of guerilla goodness.

A man might plunk a coin into a stranger's meter just in time.
A dozen people with pails and mops and tulip bulbs might descend on a run-down house and clean it from top to bottom, while the frail elderly owners look on, dazed and smiling.
A woman writes "Merry Christmas!" to the tellers on the back of her checks.

Senseless acts of beauty spread: A man plants daffodills along the roadway, his shirt billowing in the breeze from passing cars.

They say you can't smile without cheering up yourself a little - likewise, you can't commit a random act of kindness without feeling as if your own troubles have been lightened if only because the world has become slightly a better place.

And you can't be a recipient without feeling a shock, a pleasant jolt. If you were one of those rush-hour drivers who found your bridge fare paid, who knows what you might have been inspired to do for someone later?" Excerpts from December 1991 issue Glamour magazine

I have been struggling with a few issues lately. After reading this article, I feel so much better, so much lighter. I truly feel that the world can become a nicer place, if we can be kinder to each other.