I was in the drive through line at the coffee shop today and the guy ahead of me was being rather irritating. For one thing, it took him forever to order his drink. Clearly he was not ready to order, which is what you should be whenever you go through a drive through line. Then he went up to the window to pay, and proceeded to hand the barista at the window a bunch of trash (okay, it was just an empty energy drink can, but still…) to dispose of. Then he had the barista hand him a napkin, and he proceeded to wipe something off the outside of his door; and then, gave the barista the napkin back to dispose of. Seriously. He was taking forever.
Then I got up to the window and found out the same irritating guy had just paid for my latte. And I forgot why I was irritated.
A while ago one of my kids told me that something similar had happened to their dad (my former husband). He was the beneficiary of someone else’s random act of kindness. My first thought when they told me this was how ironic; and that it wasn’t fair that someone was nice to him. I of course based this thought off my own experience with him. He doesn’t do nice things for me, not ever, not since our divorce. In fact, last winter I got stuck in his unplowed driveway while dropping off our kids in the middle of the snowstorm. When I asked him for help, he refused, and told me to call a tow truck.
But I guess it’s not up to me to determine who gets to be the beneficiary of random acts of kindness. The whole point is that someone did something completely selfless; which I think is far more important.
And this time, the beneficiary was me. Tomorrow, when I pay it forward, it will be someone else.
That’s a great inspiration for me. I’m going to try that tomorrow!