You don’t have to wait to be told or paid to do something meaningful.
It all began in 1982 when Anne Herbert wrote the words ‘practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty’ on a placemat in a local Sausolito (California, United States) restaurant. Bumper stickers, books, and many, many articles and TV programmes about outbreaks of spontaneous good deeds all over the US were the result. A second wave of kindness welled up in 1993, when Professor Chuck Wall from Bakersfield College in California assigned his students the task of doing ‘something kind for no reason at all’ and to write a paper about it. In 1994, the US Congress passed a resolution that the week beginning the second Sunday in February would be National Random Acts of Kindness Awareness week in the US. November 13 is also now international Kindness Day.
The idea is that you do not have to wait to be told or paid to do something meaningful. You can make a contribution whenever you want, where ever you are. You can plant a tree spontaneously, put a coin in an expired parking metre, do the shopping for a disabled neighbour or pay the bridge or road toll for the car behind you. Your ‘target’ will benefit from your act, but so will you. They say a person cannot smile without making himself happy. And who wouldn’t be happy to save teddy bears for police officers to give to traumatized children? Which homeless person wouldn’t be glad of a home-cooked meal and a warm coat you no longer wear? And who wouldn’t be happy to be spontaneously given a bouquet of roses? With spreading happiness as your goal, you’ll never be bored!
