Over the past six months, I have attempted to demonstrate one act of kindness every single day. Though it isn’t always major things, sometimes it’s just holding the door for someone, offering a kind word to a stranger, or another small act of great love. It has most definitely been a life and attitude altering decision. However, over this past half of a year, there have been a few acts of kindness that stand out to me the most and have really changed the way that I think. One of the most recent being a 40 minute encounter with a homeless man.
It was a typical day for the most part. I had just moved out of my dorm and I had an hour and a half to kill before I was to head off to work. So I did what I usually do to kill time and took a walk on King Street in Boone. For anyone who has ever been on King Street, you know that there are often homeless people sitting along the sidewalks begging for change. I walked up and down the street a few times and took notice of a homeless gentleman with his cardboard sign. Having an act of kindness quota to fill, I used my remaining meal plan money to go to the market on campus and purchase the man a few bottles of water and a couple cans of soup. I had full intentions to hand him the items and to then proceed about my day, however those pesky heartstrings of mine compelled me to speak with him. I humbled myself and greeted the man as my equal and asked him if it was okay if I accompanied him for a bit, in which he agreed. He was doleful and pessimistic and seemed suspicious of my motives for talking to him, but once I got him talking he relaxed a bit and opened up in a way that made it seem as if he were longing for someone to just have a conversation with him.
As I sat with him, I learned a lot about what got him into the situation that he found himself in causing us to meet under these unfavorable circumstances. His tale of woes started when he was just nineteen and was drafted into the Vietnam war. After deployment he married to a lovely looking lady that he proceeded to show me through an old photograph he had shoved in a dirty book bag. However, soon into the marriage he started drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and was later diagnosed with PTSD, causing his wife to leave him. After their divorce he was forced to declare bankruptcy. In a state of distress and heartbrokenness, he packed up what he had and left his home to live out of a car. Eventually, through unfortunate events he lost that too. Now he gets by begging for change in places like King Street and relying on the mercy of kind people to stay alive.
Though his story alone was enough to break my heart, nothing prepared me for what he said next. “Spare change gets me from bus stop to bus stop but it’s the kindness behind those quarters that makes me believe that even a life like mine is worth living.” When he said that I, being the pansy that I am, started to tear up a little bit. How many times of distress have caused me to think that my life, as good as I have it, was not worth living? How many times have I complained over trivial things? Or how many times have I felt discontentment with the things I am already so blessed with? Here I was in the presence of someone who had lost everything and was able to keep going and find value in life purely by the kindness of others, and I spent the morning bitter because I only had decaf coffee left. In that moment I felt so selfish and ungrateful, yet blessed and hopeful at the same time.
Unfortunately, I soon had to leave to head to work. So I gave the gentleman $20 that I had planned to buy a T-shirt with, (if we are being honest I have more than enough T-shirts), wished him well and proceeded about my day with a new attitude and outlook. And on the drive to work, I decided that I was going to start finding more value and happiness in the little things that I so very often took for granted. Like someone taking time out of their day to hold the door open for me, or dog kisses or even, though more reluctantly, decaf coffee. Most importantly, I was going to take this man’s advice and start living for the kindness of others as well as the kindness and compassion that I can have for my fellow human beings who are trying to navigate life just as I am. I want to always be mindful of the fact that everyone that I come across has a story, and I hope that I can only remember to slow down, listen and learn.
