I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but I've started gearing my acts of building kindness more toward strangers. I like doing things for everyone, including my friends and family, but it seems best for the mission to spread the kindness out as far as I can take it.
This weekend I went to a self service car wash here in Bellevue to clean out my truck. I had just finished vacuuming the inside when I overheard the lady on the other side of the vacuum complaining to her daughter that the machine had taken her money and wasn't working. It's not very often that an opportunity to build kindness falls into my lap like that, so couldn't help but offer assistance.
Even though I had overheard her talking to her daughter, I played it cool and asked her is she was having trouble with her side of the vacuum. She confirmed, so I pointed out that my side was working well, and that I would be happy to give her 75 cents since she had already spend her money on the broken side. She said thank you for giving up the vacuum, but denied my offer to reimburse her money. I was going to let it pass, but then I noticed her digging through her purse to find a dollar to break at the change machine. I reiterated my offer and, told her that I wouldn't take no for an answer. To prove my persistence I went ahead and put my change in the machine and handed her the hose to the running vacuum. She laughed and said thank you again.
I thought about giving her one of the blog cards, but decided not to unless she said something to me again. The way it worked out, I finished everything I needed to do before she was done vacuuming, so we never got the opportunity to talk a second time. When I look back, I'm happy with the way it played out. I like the idea of people who have never met me coming to the blog and reading about my exploits, but the idea of handing someone a card out of the blue like that seems a little creepy. I could see her being like... "What does he do, hang out at the car wash all day waiting for someone to need help?"
What do you think I should have done? Card or no card?
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The key “getting people to think about paying it forward”. No card was a good idea. You can always leave random cards on restaurant tables, bulletin boards, dr. offices, public restrooms, etc.
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