Tag: kindness

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An Act Of Kindness & The Magic Of Movies

An act of kindness, and the magic of movies at Christmastime. This comment on the YouTube video for Josh Groban’s “Believe” from Polar Express has received over 1,000 responses:

I remember when i didnt like christmas bcuz i was a little black boy who saw everyone else with a “complete” family, but i only had my brother and my ma. They always seemed happy, while my ma seemed stressed all the time. so i kept to myself, hoping that at least someone seen that i was hurt especially on a holiday.

But no one did. I started to think that wen people say “christmas bring ppl together” was shitty at only the age of 6.

But an old white lady at school saw my hurt, and made my time at the school fun. She gave me things, taught me things, played with me (oh, is it appropriate to say its tough to literally have u and ur brother as the only blacks at that school?), and treated me with more respect than anyone at the school.

One day, she called me out of class, and to be honest i thought she was mad at me, but she took me out to see this movie (Polar Express). I was so happy, it was jus like yesterday.

Maybe bcuz i was a innocent little kid then, but i felt like she was family. I never knew someone like her would make that hate for christmas turn into pure love and respect.

I never seen her since, but Im 17 now, 11 yrs later, and one of the best christmas gifts ever is to see her again and thank her for turning that hate into straight happiness all year round. Not only for Christmas. She had a big impact on who i am today.

Idk whos reading this, but i hope the rest of your years here on earth is great. Happy holidays!

“You have everything you need, if you just believe.”

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Viral: Kooky Bookstore Customer’s Lesson In Kindness

I came across this story on Facebook which has gone viral and had to share.

Growing up, I watched my father do things like this. It makes me smile to be reminded of that.

Posted by Christine Turel:

I work in a decent sized, local, indie bookstore. It’s a great job 99% of the time and a lot of our customers are pretty neat people. Any who, middle of the day this little old lady comes up. She’s lovably kooky. She effuses how much she loves the store and how she wishes she could spend more time in it but her husband is waiting in the car ‘OH! I BETTER BUY HIM SOME CHOCOLATE!’ She piles a bunch of art supplies on the counter and then stops and tells me how my bangs are beautiful and remind her of the ocean (‘Wooooosh’ she says, making a wave gesture with her hand.

Ok. I think to myself. Awesomely happy, weird little old ladies are my favorite kind of customer. They’re thrilled about everything and they’re comfortably bananas. I can have a good time with this one. So we chat and it’s nice.

Then this kid, who’s been up my counter a few times to gather his school textbooks, comes up in line behind her (we’re connected to a major university in the city so we have a lot of harried students pass through). She turns around to him and, out of nowhere, demands that he put his textbooks on the counter. He’s confused but she explains that she’s going to buy his textbooks.

He goes sheetrock white. He refuses and adamantly insists that she can’t do that. It’s like, $400 worth of textbooks. She, this tiny old woman, boldly takes them out of his hands, throws them on the counter and turns to me with an intense stare and tells me to put them on her bill. The kid at this point is practically in tears. He’s confused and shocked and grateful. Then she turns to him and says ‘you need chocolate.’ She starts grabbing handfuls of chocolates and putting them in her pile.

He keeps asking her ‘why are you doing this?’ She responds ‘Do you like Harry Potter?’ and throws a copy of the new Cursed Child on the pile too.

Finally she’s done and I ring her up for a crazy amount of money. She pays and asks me to please give the kid a few bags for his stuff. While I’m bagging up her merchandise the kid hugs her. We’re both telling her how amazing she is and what an awesome thing she’s done. She turns to both of us and says probably one of the most profound, unscripted things I’ve ever had someone say:

‘It’s important to be kind. You can’t know all the times that you’ve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. It’s easy to be cruel without meaning to be. There’s nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.’

The kid thanks her again and leaves. I tell her again how awesome she is. She’s staring out the door after him and says to me: ‘My son is a homeless meth addict. I don’t know what I did. I see that boy and I see the man my son could have been if someone had chosen to be kind to him at just the right time.’

I’ve bagged up all her stuff and at this point am super awkward and feel like I should say something but I don’t know what. Then she turns to me and says: ‘I wish I could have bangs like that but my darn hair is just too curly.’ And leaves. And that is the story of the best customer I’ve ever had. Be kind to somebody today.

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Subway riders free man trapped between platform and train

A man boarding a subway in Perth, Australia, slipped and became trapped between the train and the platform.

What happened next will give you a bit of a lift: the riders got off the train and pushed the train  enough the free the man.

Instead of what could have been hours of delays was solved in less than 10 minutes.

Bravo, humanity!

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Helen Mirren steps in for Queen Elizabeth to meet dying boy

Oliver Burton is a 10 year old boy who is dying of cancer.

His greatest wish was to visit Buckingham Palace and have afternoon tea with the Queen.  As life would have it, Her Royal Highness was unable to fit the Oliver into her schedule.

But this story has a happy ending because the fab Helen Mirren stepped in and saved the day.

Oliver, who has Down’s syndrome, has been battling various forms of cancer almost his entire life, and was recently diagnosed with terminal spine and bone marrow cancer.

But last week, for a brief afternoon, his troubles took a backseat to a meeting with the “Queen.”

Helen Mirren, currently starring in the West End in Peter Morgan’s play The Audience, invited Oliver and his family to see her performance.  (I saw the play last month and Mirren is fantastic, earning all of her rave reviews).

Still dressed as the Queen, she then invited Oliver backstage to have tea and cakes.

Mirren even took the time to knight Oliver, giving him the official title of Sir.

“She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us,” Oliver’s father James Browne is quoted as saying.

“It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet such a brave young man,” Mirren later told The Sun.

(via Gawker)