Random act of Kindness

[jrerun21 10+ year member]

fixed. lol

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[adio 5,000+ posts]

2 things........ i gave this old dude $2 after he asked for some spare change as i was leaving this store. at first i told him no. but after i stared at him as i sat in my car, i felt bad. it was about 3 in the morning and like 45 degrees outside

another time, i was sittin at this restaurant studyin and this dude i went to high school with, named carl, walked in. carl was always well liked cause he was kinda slow, maybe somewhere between mild to moderately retarded. well for the last 10 years, he's been walkin around takin polaraids for people and chargin $5 a pic. i bought him a strawberry milkshake cause the waitress asked if he wanted something and he said he couldn't afford it.

 

[jrerun21 10+ year member]

i'm finding 1 of 2 motivations for random acts of kindness:

Guilt-Motivated

Self-Benefit

Both have more to do with pleasing ones self rather than someone else... So is it really an act of kindness?

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

My wife and I make it a point to try to do this kind of thing fairly frequently... it's just a good philosophy, I think. You know, buying lunch for guys holding signs on the street (homeless or advertisers), etc. I always give up parking spots, let people in traffic, those kinds of things. Open doors for people (not just little old ladies), tip waitstaff extra (I know what it's like to work in foodservice), blah blah blah.
I do remember specifically one thing a few weeks ago... this guy was at McDonald's while I was standing in line waiting to get my breakfast. He was a guy who looked kinda down on his luck, a little dirty, sorta poor-looking, etc. He had his daughter (I assumed) with him, she was maybe 3 or 4. He was trying to order them some breakfast and she wanted a couple things, whatever, I don't remember. Anyways, he was trying to use his debit card to pay for it, the machine wouldn't take it, it kept reading failure or something. He ran it through 3-4 times, and the cashier was getting kinda irritated with him. His daughter was very well-behaved, and looked well-dressed and clean... I figured she prolly lived with mom and was on her weekend visit with dad perhaps. He was kinda upset he couldn't get her breakfast, and embarrassed that he'd held up the line, and I know it's always embarrassing when your card gets declined.

So I paid for their breakfast. He was very grateful and said if I'd follow him to an ATM he'd get the money to pay me back, but I just told him not to worry about it. I was impressed with a father who appeared to be kinda down on his luck trying to make a nice weekend visit for his daughter by taking her to breakfast. Too many people these days don't put forth any effort with their kids, and I wanted to help him out. She was also just as cute as hell. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif My assumptions may have been way off, but that's what I told myself.

So that's it... no big deal, and not uncommon for me. I'm not rich by any means, but after living outside the US for several years and in some very economically-depressed areas, I try to see how I've got so very many blessings that I often take for granted, and how so many people even here have it much harder than I do.

I dunno, anyways...

u live life like i do. or. i live life like u do =pit feels good to do stuff like that. most def. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Me three, unfortunately my girl doesn't live by that philosophy, yet. I will rub off on her at some point (and no I didn't mean to say rub one off on her for all you guys waiting to hop on that one).

 

[adio 5,000+ posts]

i'm finding 1 of 2 motivations for random acts of kindness:
Guilt-Motivated

Self-Benefit

Both have more to do with pleasing ones self rather than someone else... So is it really an act of kindness?

yeah, cause u don't have to do it, no matter the guilt u have or how it may or may not benefit u. helpin somebody people don't usually say to themselves, 'it'll make me feel good if i do this'....... but they do say 'it could be me one day' or 'it could be my son/daughter/granmother/father/etc, one day'

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

My wife and I make it a point to try to do this kind of thing fairly frequently... it's just a good philosophy, I think. You know, buying lunch for guys holding signs on the street (homeless or advertisers), etc. I always give up parking spots, let people in traffic, those kinds of things. Open doors for people (not just little old ladies), tip waitstaff extra (I know what it's like to work in foodservice), blah blah blah.
I do remember specifically one thing a few weeks ago... this guy was at McDonald's while I was standing in line waiting to get my breakfast. He was a guy who looked kinda down on his luck, a little dirty, sorta poor-looking, etc. He had his daughter (I assumed) with him, she was maybe 3 or 4. He was trying to order them some breakfast and she wanted a couple things, whatever, I don't remember. Anyways, he was trying to use his debit card to pay for it, the machine wouldn't take it, it kept reading failure or something. He ran it through 3-4 times, and the cashier was getting kinda irritated with him. His daughter was very well-behaved, and looked well-dressed and clean... I figured she prolly lived with mom and was on her weekend visit with dad perhaps. He was kinda upset he couldn't get her breakfast, and embarrassed that he'd held up the line, and I know it's always embarrassing when your card gets declined.

So I paid for their breakfast. He was very grateful and said if I'd follow him to an ATM he'd get the money to pay me back, but I just told him not to worry about it. I was impressed with a father who appeared to be kinda down on his luck trying to make a nice weekend visit for his daughter by taking her to breakfast. Too many people these days don't put forth any effort with their kids, and I wanted to help him out. She was also just as cute as hell. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif My assumptions may have been way off, but that's what I told myself.

So that's it... no big deal, and not uncommon for me. I'm not rich by any means, but after living outside the US for several years and in some very economically-depressed areas, I try to see how I've got so very many blessings that I often take for granted, and how so many people even here have it much harder than I do.

I dunno, anyways...

I was that man, that is my scam, and that little girl is a for-rent human slave.

Thanks for the pancakes sucker.

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

yeah, cause u don't have to do it, no matter the guilt u have or how it may or may not benefit u. helpin somebody people don't usually say to themselves, 'it'll make me feel good if i do this'....... but they do say 'it could be me one day' or 'it could be my son/daughter/granmother/father/etc, one day'

On a more serious note, I think it's somewhere between your two viewpoints. I think it's just as likely to be motivated by empathy as it is to be motivated by wanting to feel superior or alleviating guilt for other things in your life. In the end though you can't argue with a good deed, since actions ripple far more than internal thoughts in the cesspool of human behavior //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

I don't feel that it is self motivated for me.

On elevators I allow everyone to get on board before me. These people are mostly in the same position as me, working within my (rather large) company. I hold the door button on all elevators when arriving to a destination where everyone is getting out (ground floor usually or a top floor). I open doors and allow people to walk in before me, I ask people if they need help carrying things if they look like they are struggling. I take calls on a daily basis from people who can't afford their medications and who are crying on the phone to me, only to turn them around and let them know that there is someone out there who cares and will do what they can to help them. I don't expect nor want anything in return for any of these things.

 

[Liquid Bass 10+ year member]

i was at sonic and what looked to be like a single mom was ordering food and when the waitress came out she was $2 short, and the lady was gona take the drinks back, so i walked over and paid for her full meal and bought the 2 kids milkshakes, then she started crying and told me how thankfull she was and she just wasnt financially secure at the moment...made me feel good... and i helped a guy who hit a deer about a month ago to get his hood down and spare tire on so he could drive home.

 

[Audio Master 10+ year member]

I helped a person out by giving them a complete new stereo as there s had been stolen it was a first car it got stolen a car company gave him a new one as he was slightly metally disabled and i donated a full stero to him aswell as payed for a pro install the reason why is because he had saved since he was 7 for a car and stereo and then when he got it at age 18 some arsehole stole it and i though that sucked it got on the news here and other people offerd insurence and free car washes also free rims and fee upgrades to the exterior the best thing of all was the look on his face when he played his favorite song on his new stereo and it shook the hole car he was in pure extacy

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

i left a KFC chicken snacker by a sleeping homeless guy

 

[yne721 10+ year member]

whenever i see someone pushing their car because it broke down, i always get out and help. i've had to push my car(s) to a parking lot or something 8 times, and out of all of those times, i only got help one time and i honestly think it was only because i was blocking traffic and i was pushing uphill by myself. so now i make a point of helping people push their cars, even if it is only a few feet or something. the only exception is if they're on the highway, because it's too hard to get off then get back on and turn around and all that stuff.

and i always give bums my extra bottles out of my car, which usually accumulate rather fast when i'm working a lot.

 

[dbhittin 5,000+ posts]

i help pull 3 trucks outa the mud last weekend cuz they thought 2wheel drives would work just as well as a 4 wheel drive lol.. but i always help anyone i can and when i ship things, i always pay extra to make sure it gets there safe... i was a punk kid and ****ed around alot, but i was always helpful.. i pay for my g/fs friends to come to dinner with us ect..

 

[SilverSquared 10+ year member]

I help people a lot, but honestly, I cant, or dont remember them because its normal acts for me. Nothing special. My fiancee STILL tells everyone how i open the door for her, pull out the chair, and all that, and we been together for over 8 years. She asks her friends when their man did it for them, and they tell her after they made 6 months to a year in the relationship, they stopped.

I am a romantic at heart, a well natured guy who tries to help those who need help. I have always been this way, and I think its because I alwas use better judgement than the way my parents raised me.

I am the guy that gets called to help other people, but when I need help, theres no one there for me....and THATS my reason for helping people, for when they have no help, and need it, like me.

 

[Bloodstalker999 10+ year member]

its nice to hear that there are nice people in this world. I personally do random acts of kindness when ever I get then chance.

One time a truck got stuck in some loose dirt when he was trying to turn around on a two lane road, and blocked the road in both directions. this was in a rural area but it was a well traveled road. My friends and I went to see if there was anything to do to help but since we didn't have anything that could pull a fully loaded semi-truck out of the dirt we couldn't really do anything. So we sat down and started thinking of ways we can help when we seen two cars almost hit each other because they were both trying go around the truck on the same side. Seeing that made us realize that we could help by directing traffic. We spent 3 hours doing that before a tractor came and pulled the truck out.

That was one of the many things I have done, I just don't remember most of them but I have always believed that if I can help someone I should.