Goats and Soda

editor's note

Dear readers,

The other day a man stopped me on the sidewalk as I was heading to NPR's offices in Washington, D.C. He asked, "How do I get to Wisconsin Avenue?" He looked .. well, not as if he lived on the street but also not as if he were well-off.

It'd be a long walk -- 3 or 4 miles or more, depending on which part of Wisconsin Avenue he wanted to reach. I wasn't up on public transit options.

Now he didn't ask for money. But I thought, maybe money would help. I cracked my wallet and gave him a $20. A smile crossed his face. "Now I can get the train to where I need to go," he said. "I'm just out of the penitentiary and have to go to a meeting. You are a blessing in my life."

Giving money to a stranger is not always a straightforward transaction. It can be hard to figure out someone's true motives. Nonetheless, at that moment I acted out of the kindness of my heart (instilled by my dad, who often told me that if someone were to ask for aid, you should always lend a hand). And the man's response made me feel as if he were in need of kindness. And in turn, his response gave me a warm glow.

This past week we published a post about random acts of kindness because, as it turns out, November 13 is World Kindness Day. The article featured stories of how kindness had changed people's lives -- like the 10-year-old girl whose family couldn't afford school fees until an anonymous donor stepped in. And it looked at how kindness can be contagious -- there's a famous example where over 200 people treated the next person in line to a coffee at a Tim Hortons shop in Canada.

Read the story here.

Dear readers, if you have a personal anecdote about an act of kindness that was important in your life, please share it in an email to goatsandsoda@npr.org with "kindness" in the subject line. We may use it in a follow-up story.

Marc Silver,
Editor, Goats and Soda

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