Random acts of kindness
I ride the bus to work every day. And sometimes I ride it home. Mostly I stick my head in the newspaper and drink my coffee, ignoring what goes on around me. It's my 'alone' time before I have to deal with morons all day.
Anyway, tonight I took the bus home from work. I got on the bus and sat down and this blonde woman - probably about 23 or 24 - sat in the seat right in front of me. Two seats in front of *her* was a girl. I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to her because I was working on a crossword puzzle. But then I heard her crying.
At first I thought she was sniffling because she had a cold, but then I saw shaking shoulders and knew that she was sobbing.
The woman in front of me got up to go to the front of the bus to "get a route schedule". On her way back to her seat she plopped down in front of the other girl and said "Hey. You ok?" The other girl shook her head. The first girl said "Boy trouble?" and the second girl said "Yeah."
After that, I couldn't hear the conversation but the sobbing girl spent the next 4 or 5 minutes of the ride talking about what was upsetting her. I couldn't see her face but I could see the blonde girl's. She was gently smiling, sweetly sympathetic, and nodded in all the right places. By the time the sobbing girl got off the bus, she'd stopped sobbing and even came up with a smile for the other girl.
And I sat there and watched this short little interaction... it couldn't have lasted, maybe, 10 minutes at the most. But... it made all the difference in the world to that upset girl. Just that someone listened to her, acknowledged her pain... someone she didn't even know thought she was important enough to listen.
Now, I don't know if that girl has any kind of support system - friends, family, sister - to help her through whatever it was that upset her. But she had someone in that immediate moment of need. And that was an amazing thing for that blonde woman to do.
When I got off the bus, I passed by her on purpose, looked down and said "That was a really, really sweet thing you did." She looked stunned for a second and then smiled at me. "Thank you," she said. "Someone had to do something."
And if there were more people like her - including me - the world would be an infinitely better place.
Anyway, tonight I took the bus home from work. I got on the bus and sat down and this blonde woman - probably about 23 or 24 - sat in the seat right in front of me. Two seats in front of *her* was a girl. I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to her because I was working on a crossword puzzle. But then I heard her crying.
At first I thought she was sniffling because she had a cold, but then I saw shaking shoulders and knew that she was sobbing.
The woman in front of me got up to go to the front of the bus to "get a route schedule". On her way back to her seat she plopped down in front of the other girl and said "Hey. You ok?" The other girl shook her head. The first girl said "Boy trouble?" and the second girl said "Yeah."
After that, I couldn't hear the conversation but the sobbing girl spent the next 4 or 5 minutes of the ride talking about what was upsetting her. I couldn't see her face but I could see the blonde girl's. She was gently smiling, sweetly sympathetic, and nodded in all the right places. By the time the sobbing girl got off the bus, she'd stopped sobbing and even came up with a smile for the other girl.
And I sat there and watched this short little interaction... it couldn't have lasted, maybe, 10 minutes at the most. But... it made all the difference in the world to that upset girl. Just that someone listened to her, acknowledged her pain... someone she didn't even know thought she was important enough to listen.
Now, I don't know if that girl has any kind of support system - friends, family, sister - to help her through whatever it was that upset her. But she had someone in that immediate moment of need. And that was an amazing thing for that blonde woman to do.
When I got off the bus, I passed by her on purpose, looked down and said "That was a really, really sweet thing you did." She looked stunned for a second and then smiled at me. "Thank you," she said. "Someone had to do something."
And if there were more people like her - including me - the world would be an infinitely better place.
posted by Blue Blankie at 12:27:00 AM
2 Comments:
jesus ... you know ... you are such a good storyteller. i don't tell you that often enough ... write more stories, 'k?
This made me cry!
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