It always amazes me how generous British people are when it comes to donating money to charitable causes...like the current Sports Relief campaign, which so far has raised over £31 million. For the benefit of non British readers, every year celebrities undergo extreme challenges (like the comedian Eddie Izzard's “43 Marathons in 51 Days”) to raise funds for good causes in the UK and abroad. If you’re interested, you can read more about this HERE.
Have you ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness? Has a complete stranger done something nice for you...not just because they had to as part of their job, or because they hoped to get something back in return?
Last autumn, B and I were travelling back to Sorrento from Herculaneum, and rather naively, we’d hopped on board a train at Ercolano, assuming that all trains from Naples ran to Sorrento when in fact the train line branches shortly after Ercolano. We would have ended up who-knows-where (Rome?), if it wasn’t for the kind Italian gent sitting opposite us....he must have overheard us saying something about Sorrento, as, with a mixture of Italian and English and much wild gesturing, he managed to convince us to get off the train at the next stop and change platforms. Grazie!
This past weekend, I went shopping for a few bits and bobs, including face cream in a well known UK chemist. As I’ve recently been (vainly and vainly!) trying to reverse the damage that a childhood under the hot African sun does to skin better suited to the damp British climate, I was splashing out on a up-market cream that promises to hold the elixir of youth within its tiny (and highly expensive) glass vial walls. Clutching my basket of goods in one hand, and a much-prized voucher for £5 off said esteemed product in the other, I went up to the till to pay. The friendly shop assistant quietly told me she would ring up the other bits of shopping first, which would earn me another £5 off voucher, and then she would ring each of the two face creams I was buying separately, as that way I could claim £5 off each one! Wasn’t that nice of her? Sometimes, just a small, kind act can really make your day...
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
AESOP, The Lion and the Mouse
Kindness begets kindness evermore.
SOPHOCLES, Ajax
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, A Streetcar Named Desire
