Getting Substance at Subway

Yesterday I went to Subway for lunch with a leprechaun (my friend Jeff). After we got our sandwiches and sat down, this guy buying his food asked if either one of us had a dime. I was kinda taken back because he didn't need the dime to purchase his food. Instead, he just didn't want to walk around with 90 cents in his pocket. I am all about helping someone who can't afford food, and I don't mind if someone I'm with asks for help with making exact change... but a stranger?

I thought to myself, "That takes gall. If I were him, I would have paid with what I had and then left the 90 cents on the counter for other people who also might want to use exact change." Even though it was solicited and I didn't agree with his approach, it was building kindness, so I gave him the 10 cent.

After a while sitting, talking and eating with Jeff, it hit me that I was uselessly harsh in my opinion of the 10 cent guy. I didn't know his situation. I didn't know what he needed his money for. With the economy and job market the way it is right now, it's more likely than ever that his asking for change was preceded by serious need. Our society as a whole is so judgmental, and I hate it. Thinking more deeply about this guy's possible reasons for asking for change gave me a meaningful moment of reflection and growth.

When Jeff and I finished lunch, I went out to my car, collected about a dollar's worth of dimes and took them back inside. I sat the change on the counter and I told the kid working the register to give it to other people who need exact change.

Here is a picture of Jeff... and a picture of a leprechaun. I wasn't kidding.

Remodeler, Blogger, and now Mailman

I own a green remodeling business here in Nashville. Yesterday I got a call from one of my clients asking if I could do him a favor. He left town and forgot to put his mail on hold, so he figured that since I already have a key to his place it would make since to ask me to pick up his mail everyday. I was like, "Sure. I'll get it on my way through and just put it in your (beautifully remodeled) kitchen."

So that's it. Starting yesterday and going though till next Friday I will be picking up his mail. I figure I could count this as my acts of kindness for the next 7 days, but you and I both know that would be a cop-out, and I don't want to start copping-out this early in the game.

eBay Honorablilty

Let me go on record saying that I like eBay. Also, I like rock climbing. So, whenever I need to buy something for rock climbing I check out eBay first. Well, a couple weeks ago I won an auction for a new climbing rope on eBay. When I got the thing in this week, I found that it was nearly seventeen feet shorter than what was advertised on the listing. Seventeen feet may not sound like much, but that's 10% shorter than what I was told I was buying

I was quite annoyed. Nonetheless, I wanted to give the seller the benefit of the doubt, so I messaged him this: "I got the rope in today. It is as described except that it's 45 meters, not 50 meters. Did I get the wrong one?" I didn't really think he sent me the wrong rope. Truthfully, I thought he was trying to increase his profits by exaggerating the size of the rope. Obviously most all buyers would notice if something came in 50% shorter, but would they notice 10%? I felt like he was trying to scam me.

I got a response from the seller the next day. He said, "Sorry for the wrong description, it was not my intentions to mislead you or anyone else. As it was my fault, I will be glad to refund everything you paid for this plus your return postage. Or if you wish to keep it, I will gladly refund $10.00 to your PayPal account. Again it was an over-site of mine with no intentions to mislead you in any way! Let me know what you want to do." I have to admit, I was impressed by his offer. The fact that he was willing to refund me everything was pretty honorable. It's becoming more and more rare for capitalistic people do the right thing, and because he did... I wanted to thank him.

I responded to his message with this, "Thanks for the offer. I appreciate that you wanted to do the right thing. Even though the rope was a few meters short, I feel like I paid a fair price for what I received... so don't worry about any sort of refund." The truth is, I did pay a fair price. If I had gone to a retail store like REI, the same rope would have cost me over double. I could have bought a sweet new figure 8 with the $10 refund, but I ultimately decided that it was a better investment for me to use the $10 to build kindness. 

Here's a pic of my new rope.

PS: If you haven't ever tried climbing, you should! Its a great workout mental and physically. I used to be very afraid of heights, and rock climbing has nearly eradicated my phobia. If your local, I recommend Climb Nashville as a good place to start.

Drive By

With the amount of fun I had yesterday playing with Annoying in the snow, I decided today to try and find an act of kindness that was a little more passive. In other words, I didn't want to talk to anyone. My original thought was to help my wife. She got a new laptop a few weeks ago (I've already been scolded several times for using it), and has been having trouble with the touch pad. Her hands are so small that when using proper typing position, her palms touch the pad and undesirably move the cursor.

I saw two potential solutions to her problem:

1. Buy her a wireless mouse and program the touch pad to deactivate when the mouse was present, or
2. Keep letting her accidentally delete things in hope that she'd start to hate her laptop... and give it to me.

I'm a softie at heart, so I went to Wal-Mart to find her a mouse. As soon as I entered the parking lot I started eye-hawking close parking spots.  I noticed a car on the second row put it's backup lights on and I made a bee line straight for it. My timing was perfect and the spot was mine for the taking. Then it hit me... build kindness.

I looked in my rear view mirror and saw an average looking lady in an average looking car on my bumper. So, what did I do? You guessed it... I froze my butt off walking from a spot much further down the next lane. I know that that lady has no clue I passed that spot up for her, but that's not the point of what I'm doing. I want kindness to be instinctual / second nature for me. The more I do things like this, the more it will become apart of who I am.

I did end up getting my wife the mouse, but I felt more impacted by the parking spot. This commercial makes me laugh.

Snow Day in Nashville

Yesterday I thought that it would be nice to help my neighbor lady get going off to work (if I'm being honest, she's *insert antonym for pleasant*). I live in a condo complex and each unit has its own carport space. My neighbor lady, who I'll start referring to as Annoying, normally parks her car under her carport. So, it makes perfect sense that the one week out of the entire year Nashville is expected to be buried in a blizzard, she opts to park her car in an uncovered spot.

I'm thinking to myself, "Self, I hate you. Look at her waddling around that car like a cat with tape on its paws. Go help her... No don't, you'll be stuck there all day... COME ON, JUST GO HELP HER!" So I walk over there and I'm like, "You need any help?" She started talking to me, but I hate to admit that I didn't listen; I was too busy trying to figure out the fastest way to get the snow off her car and out of her kill zone.

I started by brushing off the top layer of snow with my hands. This worked well. The snow was clearing quickly and the pain from the cold was distracting me from Annoying. Then I used an empty plastic cup from a recent Vandy game to scrape the layer of ice from the glass. I couldn't help but think how smart of a solution that was. I smiled because most Vandy fans are smart like that. Annoying saw me smile and thought it was about the conversation she was having at me. Ha.

The cup made quick work of the project, and I was relieved to have done my first kind deed. It hurt my hands and I probably set myself up for who knows how many one-sided chats with Annoying in the future, but I do feel better on the inside. That's the purpose of this whole thing anyways... to build kindness inside and out. I'm looking forward to finding something kind to do tomorrow.