A woman extended a rose to a random passer-by. From behind my
headphones devoid of music, I heard her kind voice ask, “would you like a rose…”
But before she could finish her question, the passer-by swerved away,
shaking her head, mutely mouthing the word no,
earbud cord dangling from her neck.
All-too-familiar with the many non-profit organizations that come to my campus to rally for support, signatures, and new members, I watched as
another victim approached the flower lady, grateful I would not be the one caught
in this donation trap.
“Would you like a rose to pass on to someone as a random act of
kindness, today”, she asked the person.
And my headphones came out, and my voice sounded, “Oh my god! I do! How neat! I love this! Do I
donate funds or something? I mean, how does this work?”
I’d have donated a dollar or two had it been necessary. The simple idea of
passing on a random act of kindness is just my cup of tea. Lucky for me,
donations were refused.
It turned out that KIND snacks, a company that makes healthy, gluten-free treats with non-GMO products, was promoting kindness. It was only when I asked what this
was all about that I was I handed a flier with stickers reading #kindawesome for sticking on things that
I was enthusiastic about to share via Tweet or Instagram photos. Had I been on social media presently, I’d have #kindawesome’d
all over the place!
I took my single red rose to pass on, and almost as soon as I looked up was soon irked by the greed I
saw. Several people slowly walked down the center of campus with bouquets of single roses, chatting with
friends, huge smiles on their faces. Wasn’t the point to share?
Moments later, I came to the center of campus and found oodles of flowers
for the taking and approached another worker. “How many can we take” I asked.
“As many as the people you’d like to make happy today”, he said with a
grin on his face.
And I proudly became one of those
girls with a bouquet in my hand.
I gave a rose to the bookstore greeter who gave me a kind hello, and
one to my friend who never buys herself flowers because they die. I gave a rose to the girl in class whose face lit up when I walked in
with the buds, and one to a cashier at Burger King who commented on the beauty of
the single stem in my hand.
I gave a rose to the resident staff in my apartment building who so
regularly performs random acts of kindness for the students living here, and
then I gave the last rose to myself because, although I had intended it for
the peaceful homeless man who regularly sleeps at The Shrine Auditorium, I felt
he deserved better than the wilted, droopy flower now only suitable for drying. (Besides, let’s face it, sometimes we need to be randomly kind to ourselves,
too).
And do you know what? The whole day, I was so busy giving that I can’t recall
having looked at my phone to text message someone out of boredom, or with the
impulse of entertaining myself with Dragon Zumu, my one single guilty pleasure
of a game that I play on my phone.
So as a solution to your issues, whether you are trying not to look
so often at your favoritesocial media sites, or you just need a distraction from your
troubles, simply give. Give a smile. Give space for someone to get over in
traffic. Give an opened door to someone with their hands full. Give a compliment.
Challenge yourself to look for just the right person to be the recipient of
your giving, and you’ll be entertained your whole day long.
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