Background

Friday, November 1, 2013

PAY IT FORWARD

My friend Arminta posted the following on Facebook:

"I didn't have to go to work today until noon so I went to Tim Horton's to get a sandwich and sweet tea. There was a car wanting to turn left into Tim Horton's and I figured they were probably trying to get to work so I just motioned them to go ahead of me because I was in no hurry today. When I ordered my food I thought she said, $9.08. I thought that can't be right--maybe she said $5.08--so I thought I'd just wait until I got up there and correct them if it's wrong. Well, I got to the window and the young man said, "The lady ahead of you paid for yours." Then he asked, "Did you only have one sandwich?" I said, "Yes, did you charge that lady too much?" He said yes. The best I could do was get the food for the person behind me...but I felt really guilty that the nice person paid too much. So, whoever you are, lady in the Chrysler (at least I think it was--I'm not really good with cars), Thank You very much and I'm sorry you paid so much...hope someone does something nice for you today."

MY ANSWER:

Arminta, I'll PAY IT FORWARD today in honor of the "lady in the Chrysler"! I am always stunned when I offer to do something unexpected (simple things such as giving up a place in line or offering coupons) and I am rebuffed. But, I don't think it's because they don't want to accept a kindness--I think it's because they are stunned that someone would offer--and they don't know how to react and they are embarrassed to accept. Oftentimes, when this happens, I'll say, in my best Blanche du Bois imitation, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." My brother Les says, "You should know that they probably don't know Streetcar Named Desire and that you do very bad imitations; they probably think you're just a crazy Southern woman!"

It's probably better to PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS anonymously!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OMG, I actually went shopping today--on the FIRST--am I crazy? Well, I PAID IT FORWARD and gave my cart to someone at Aldi's and I said "PAY IT FORWARD" and the person said "Hunh?" Had to explain! ML