Yesterday I was robbed while on a work trip to Atlanta.
I stopped for dinner on my way back to the airport at a restaurant with great reviews, a fantastic chicken sandwich, and funky weeknight gatherings like “Authors in the Abbey.” I made the most of my time there, enjoying conversation with the wait staff and the general vibes of the Belgian inspired establishment. I paid my bill and headed out to my car with just enough time to get to the airport, return the rental, and make it through security to my gate.
As I approached the car I stepped in some broken glass that hadn’t been there when I parked and then I looked up to find the back window had been completely smashed in. They littered the seats and my suitcase in glass and took my backpack out of the floorboard.
My laptop, phone chargers, AirPod’s, a Cross necklace, my wedding ring, a bundle of emergency cash, and my passport were all gone.
I was flustered, bewildered, and quite frankly at a loss. After a few minutes of utter disbelief that this could happen to me, I went back inside to initiate the processes that follow this type of event. Finding footage, exchanging contact information, filing police reports, etc…
Remembering my flight, I hurried through the exchange of information with the restaurant and building security officer to get back to the airport. I drove quickly. For one, because I might have missed my flight, and for two because my bladder was feeling the effects of a long dinner and loads of adrenaline. I pulled up to a cheery Enterprise employee, “How was the car for ya?”
“Great! A little drafty on the way back.” His smile turned to a frown as he noticed the window and he pointed me towards his manager. I explained that my flight was boarding and I was in a rush so she took my insurance down and sent me on my way.
I strafe my way up the escalator of the train station in an awkward shuffle because at this point my bladder is about to explode. At 10:00pm, I am the only person heading from the rental cars to the terminal and I am talking to myself in a loud and aggressive tone. “You are a grown man, you cannot pee yourself on a train.”
Amidst my semi-effective self-encouragement I see something at the top of the escalator stuck between the last stair and the still platform. A pair of AirPod Max’s, retailing for over $600. “A replacement for my AirPods, God doesn’t hate me!” I think to myself as I swoop them up.
On the train, desperate to think of anything but my bladder, a different thought pops into my head. “What if I’ve been given an opportunity to do something good, even though ‘bad’ things are happening to me?”
Imagine a world where people only committed acts of kindness when their life was going well. Imagine a world where people only did good deeds because good deeds had been done for them.
We don’t have to imagine for very long because often it feels that is precisely the world we live in. When “bad” things are happening to us, we rarely stop to consider that others may still be worse off. When we have needs that aren’t being met, we often fail to realize that the needs of others are far greater.
In telling this story to my friends, their natural reply (albeit well intended or joking) was to say, “Yeah send the headphones back and get yourself some good karma.” In other words, “Maybe if you do some good, some good will happen to you.”
Doing good should not come as a trade off or a bargain. Instead, we should just do good for the sake of doing good.
Today I was able to use Apple’s technology to connect with Samyr in Philadelphia and return his headphones. He was pretty excited to get my call and I was pretty excited it worked out.
I don’t know if I’ll get a Passport in time for my trip in Switzerland in two weeks, if I’ll have to pay for the broken window of the rental car, or if I’ll see my wedding ring again, but I know that I did some good today. Today, and everyday, that will just have to be enough.
Fact
Committing acts of kindness provides us a rush of endorphins, or “feel-good” hormones.
Action
Seek out someone specifically to do something nice for them.
Question
Who around you has a need that you know about, but continue to ignore?
Quote
“Real kindness seeks no return; What return can the world make to rain clouds?”
- Tiruvalluvar, Tamil Sage
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