perform a random act of kindness

I gave money to a homeless man

I was struck by a very enlightning thought quite some time ago.

In general if I pass someone begging I don’t give them money because I don’t know what they will spend it on.

The general, usual excuse is oh they will just use it to buy drugs or alcohol or whatever, right?

A friend once told me a simple story of a time she had been in town taking out money and there was someone at the ATM begging.

And I thought about what I would have done. What if I were on a night out with my friends and I went to a ATM to take out money and ignored someone begging because they might spend the money on alcohol or drugs?

And then I realised. I would be taking out money to go spend it on alcohol on a night out! I would be such a fecking hypocrite! I would standing there thinking that excuse and then go do the same thing!

We ignore people tha are homeless or begging on the street. We act as if they don’t exist, for fear we may be asked for help or money. How dare we! How dare we ignore our fellow human beings!

So I now vow to never pass up an opportunity to do a random act of kindness. I vow to help someone as much as I can. If a homeless person wants to spend my euros on drink so be it. Maybe it will help him forget, just for one night. Or maybe, just maybe, it will help him just a little. We can never truely know exactly how long the ripples of our decisions survive. Maybe a act of kindness will change someones life. Maybe a simple gesture or kind word will restore someones faith in human kindness. I can only hope…

I’m going to buy the book 365 random acts of kindness by David Wallace for inspiration!

I got the idea for this from the movie Evan Almighty.

I’m trying to think of different ARK’s to do.