What a lovely thread, and many good ideas.
Most years we've had friends, or know of friends-of-friends, living very low on the food chain, and I've mailed anonymous gift certificates to our local grocery store to them. If I do it for the holidays I sign them as being from "Santa". I hate the idea that anyone might not have groceries in the house for the holidays.
This is indeed a wonderful thread and I'm going to budget a twenty for it. I'm thinking maybe the dude who sells newspapers in the middle of a busy Boston street during rush hour?
I love doing this kind of stuff....haven't done it in a little while. I have taken dollar bills and put them under packages of food, soda bottles, behind ice-cream so that the next person who picks it up will get a little surprise. I have bought coffee for someone and also paid for groceries ($30) for a woman who had gone out to the car to find some money (her card did not go through). I need to do some of this, been feeling a sense of "lacK" and "fear" recently.
You all have made me think of one family in particular that I know and should drop a gift card in the mail to them. I hope people will report their little RACKs! Nice thread, Kat!
IMHE and IMHO, the best ones are anonymous. (no need to post as recognition can sometimes be a bad thing)Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
You all have made me think of one family in particular that I know and should drop a gift card in the mail to them. I hope people will report their little RACKs! Nice thread, Kat!
Today I bought a package of nuts for someone who did not have enough cash whilst checking out.
It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality. Arnold Bennett
Many years ago, 1976, I believe, I was working in a department store when a young woman asked me the price of a blouse. She had a job interview & needed to dress up. When I told her the price, she looked very crestfallen, so I found a red pen & marked it down on the spot. No authority to do so, and certainly long before computerized inventory... She bought it, and I sure hope she got that job!
PS - what does RACK stand for?
After staying home for months after my mom died my dad started venturing out to eat. He goes to one place almost exclusively. Around the first of December somebody picked up his dinner tab. He is still talking about it and trying to figure out who it was. It just floored him.
Years ago there was a coworker who's wife had some serious medical issues and it wasn't a secret that they were in dire straits. He would always turn down offers made in person so I went into the utility company and annonymously paid his overdue utility bill. Another time there were several girls in the office going through hard times. I can't remember how we got to talking about favorite movie stars but everybody named theirs. The next day I had flowers delivered to them from each of their favorite actors. That was fun to watch. I had an elderly neighbor who's yard was getting hard to handle. I know it looked totally crazy but I would get off work at midnight, grab my very quiet push mower and mow her lawn by the light of the moon so she would wake up to a freshly mowed lawn. Service work is hard and often thankless so we like to be generous when tipping and if that person has that "it" personality I go the extra mile to write to the business about them as well. I also like to tip the guys (or gals) at the gas station when the weather is crappy and they have to be outside getting wet and cold.
I love the lawn mowing. It might look crazy, but wonderful-soul-angel-crazy. I think that I need to find something to do like that in my neighborhood.
I know that this is on the fringe (if even there) of what this thread is about, but it is something I am able to do.
The place that provides my therapy is attached somehow to a small shop that includes a coffee bar. I think that the shop must provide some of the funds to make therapy available to people like me. I began with them when I was homeless last year and they were recently qualified, or whatever it is called, to be able to bill Medicare, and so I am able to continue with my therapist for very little money, of which I really do have very little.
So, in addition to paying what I can, at least every other week I give one of the clerks five dollars or whatever I have to spare to be able to offer a mug of coffee to some of the clients who have even fewer resources than I have right now. I know that this is a tiny thing, tiny picture, tinier impact, but it is important to me to keep volunteering and doing small things like this. In a time of difficulty it has been a way to hold on to my humanity.
It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality. Arnold Bennett
Random Act of Christmas Kindness
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
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