Random Acts of Kindness

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It was a cool mid-December morning, and I’d just finished my final final of the semester (one of those cruel 7 a.m. finals). What a relief. A couple other roommates had returned from their 7 a.m. finals, and we found ourselves with five of our six roommates all in the apartment together with no place else to be for a couple more hours. This was rare, so we took advantage of it. Someone suggested we go to breakfast at the Denny’s restaurant behind our apartment complex.

Thus, we were seated at one of those semicircle tables, laughing and boisterous. The topics of our conversation have long faded from memory, but we were happy, relieved at the end of the semester and excited to be heading various directions to home for Christmas. The waitress had just just taken our order and left. At a table nearby, a woman and – we assumed – her teenage daughter had just finished and were leaving. They came to our table, laid down some money, said, “Breakfast is on us. Merry Christmas,” and left with a smile.

We were silent at the surprise. A couple of us finally turned and yelled, “Thank you!” before they made it out the door. We watched them through the window as they got in their car and drove away.

“That was so nice.”
“I can’t believe how nice that was.”
“That was so cool.”
“I want to do that someday.”
“Me, too.”
“I’m totally going to do that someday.”

With a nice amount of money on our table, we called back the waitress to change our orders a bit, getting a large orange juice instead of a small, or adding a side of hash browns. After we paid our bill, there was plenty of money for a very nice tip, so we left that behind.

It was a small, random act of kindness that still sticks with me today, over a decade later. It made us so happy, and inspired us to be better and to pass on that kindness. So on this Thanksgiving week in the U.S., I am grateful to those two; they are two of many who have inspired me to be a better person.

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About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

11 thoughts on “Random Acts of Kindness”

  1. I love those moments. It happened to me last week while doing laundry in my apartment complex. Someone plugged quarters into my machine while I had run back to the apartment to get them. It’s amazing how happy a person can feel about 4 quarters:)

  2. That’s why “Pay it Forward” is one of my favorite movies. Thanks for the reminder of what we all can easily do, and feel better about ourselves when we do it.

  3. Pay it forward is a good movie. The message is a good one. I know I try my best to help those in need, I usually pick up hitchikers to and from work, i’ve met some interesting people.

    The other day this guy I work with bought me a “Vote for Pedro” shirt. It seems like a goofy thing, but I work as desktop support (working on computers etc.) a fairly thankless position. You don’t know how much it meant to me to have someone do something like that for me.

    Here’s to all the good Samaritans.

  4. Great story, Tanya.

    Of course, the question arises, has someday come for any of you?

  5. Of course, the question arises, has someday come for any of you?

    This is probably a question better reflected upon personally than shared with a group.

  7. Thanks, Tanya. I enjoy hearing stories like this one.

    Don: “Pay It Forward” also is one of my favorites.

    There are unseen risks to not acting kind randomly/opportunistically. I gave some bread recently to a beggar on the freeway’s off-ramp. He remembered me from an earlier stop and asked whether I had any shepherd’s bread like before. I felt annoyed that he would get picky like that, but gave him a loaf of shepherd’s bread. Then he gave back the first loaf. Seeing my puzzled expression, he said, “Well, I’m not going to take more than I need.” Here was a man at peace, although poor. What if I hadn’t stopped — he only would have missed a loaf of bread but I would have missed this moment in the presence of dignity during adversity.

  9. Ideers:

    1. Call or visit someone in your ward whom you don’t have to, someone you don’t HT or VT.

    2. Visit someone in your ward who is in a hospital or nursing home. Ask the RS pres or Bishop to see who/where they are.

    3. Call up someone you used to HT or VT who is now in another ward due to ward split or boundary change. (Do you feel bad that you dropped them like a hot potato when you and they were no longer in the same ward?)

    4. Call or visit someone you currently HT or VT, after you’ve already made the obligatory monthly call/visit.

    5. Go up to an adult member of your ward, someone whose name you don’t know, introduce yourself, and say “I don’t know your name” or “I’m sorry, I forgot your name” (whatever the case may be.)

    6. In Sunday School, or Priesthood, or Relief Society, look around before class starts, and if you see someone sitting by themselves, go and sit near them.

    7. At your ward Christmas pot-luck (pitch-in) dinner, hold back, and go through the line after most others have gone through. Take a serving from the dishes that have had little or no food taken from them already.

  10. My wife hates Thanksgiving. Absolutely despises it. She gets all depressed. Because for her, it’s about family, and we live 1200 miles away (SW or NE) from our nearest family. [It’s her only regret about living in TGSOT and her only regret about not having family local; 364 days of the year, she appreciates the distance.]

    Every year, to get over her T-day depression, she scours the ward for the newest family who just moved in and are away from family (typically young BYU grads, it seems) and invites them to Thanksgiving dinner. She won’t let them bring anything — just themselves, to make it seem like she’s got family around.

    Funny thing is, that we don’t normally end up being close friends with those we invite over. Maybe it’s because we’re weird and eschew artificial Mormon culture. But for that one day, they appreciated the gesture and didn’t have to do their own dinner.

  11. Wow, Tanya, what I nice post. It’s great to see people get in the Thanksgiving spirit. I hope you had a good and spiritual Thanksgiving.

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