your kindness

The other day me and a friend of mine ordered a couple of soft drinks at a McDonald's drive-thru, and when we pulled up to the window to pick up our drinks and prepare to pay, the girl there just smiled and said "Yours has been paid for by the person two cars ahead." We were totally surprised, and both looked out to the car two ahead of us: It was an ordinary, black little car, a Prius, I think. This is a town in San Bernardino County, more than 100 miles away from where we live, and my friend tried to see if the driver inside may be one of the business acquaintances he knew around here, but to no avail... We scratched our heads and for the life of ours couldn't figure out who and why would someone we don't know do something like this to us. 

In the end we just had to conclude it must be someone who is in the habit of doing something like this for the happy effect it can create to the recipients, and today is just our turn to be at the receiving end of this random act of kindness, so to speak. 

Just like the story we sometimes read on newspapers that some not-necessarily-very-rich people would give out hundred-dollar bills at random to street people during Christmas time as that pleases them.

I recall that boy scout motto "Do one good deed a day" (日行一善) we were taught when growing up. Now that makes a lot of sense: Imagine if we all do one good deed a day, then almost each of us is bound to be at the receiving end of an act of kindness a day. I also recall a recent TV commercial where a Good Samaritan act as simple as yielding a seat to a stranger on the bus leads to yet another good deed, and then another, until it circles back to the original do-gooder to complete this cycle of good Karma (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frpp6DjCaJU). Random kindness can be very contagious and its own reward, indeed.

But "one good deed a day" seems a bit uptight. It's "rationed" kindness (why not do 2, or 3 good deeds a day then, that will presumably make the world even better for everyone), not the rapturous, spur-of-the-moment, "poetic" type we like to romance. Come to think of it, the Christmas dollar-bills giver and the McDonald's drinks payer, are they really perpetrators of random kindness, or they know beforehand their benevolent acts would bring joy to people (and themselves), therefore set out to do them at certain locations at certain times? These acts are not that random, but rather "premeditated," then.

To expand on that thinking, almost all kindness done in massive scale today--orphanage houses, rehab centers, Salvation Army... all charity organizations, for-profit or not, secular or religious--can fall into this premeditated, or "institutionalized" kindness category. The reason can be very simple: Though we may all want to do good for goodness' sake, we get tired of doing it after a while. Once the "charity fatigue" sets in, we say "not today," and defer it to the "professionals"--we'll just send in the checks then. 

That's why people like Dr. Schweitzer (Mr. Africa) and Mother Teresa (of Calcutta) amaze us: They are practically one-man/one-woman institutions that keep on giving, their great hearts even more than their great works, without ever fading out. Where and how did they get such endless supply of good will and energy? Not from this world, I don't think. 

Here's another true story of kindness I heard from a guy who told us after hearing our McDonald's-wonder story:

He was at a supermarket checkout stand, the woman before him was finishing up her items, when at the end the total came out to be $50 something. But the woman told the cashier that she had only $40 to spend around for the whole grocery, so they started removing items from the stand to cut the bill down to $40... Seeing and hearing all this, the man interjected and told the cashier that he'll pay whatever amount over the $40 for the woman so she can have all the items with her still... Upon hearing this, the woman broke down and cried and thanked him profusely...

My heart shivered while hearing this, and then I knew very sure I would do the same thing the man did if I were in that situation.

And I am glad I feel it this way, being assured that this cynical "getting-older" man still has some strong good heart beating in him.