Accidental Goodness or Otherwise !
Have you, or do you know of an instance of Accidental Goodness, or, acts of goodness that have had wonderful consequences and made a difference? Please feel free to share and add to this thread.
The TV and news media would have us believe that life is incredibly miserable and that people are selfish and insular. Yet, society does exist and thankfully it operates very well indeed. The level of people caring about other people, animals and the environment is incredibly high! KAS itself is living and breathing proof of the fact that thousands of good hearted people exist and care. So let's prove the journalists who focus on the negative aspects of life, wrong!
My own story involves a handmade tailored overcoat!
In 1995 my artist Father decided he wanted to treat himself to a handmade overcoat. But being almost 80 years he asked if I would drive him to the tailors to be measured. Having agreed, I assumed that the tailor would be located in the area of south London where he lived - Deptford. I lived in St. Albans which is outside of north London and over 30 miles from my Dad's flat and meant travelling right cross London - thankfully the traffic was not quite as congested as it is now! Then he informed me his chosen tailor was in a place in a different part of north London called Harringay. I thereby drove to Deptford, collected Dad and drive back the way I had come and diverted slightly to the tailors. Having been measured and selected the material, we returned back to his flat with another trip across London. Once he was safely deposited, I (deep breath) proceeded to drive through the new fully awakened London traffic back to St. Albans. Needless to say it took all day and after 4 trips across London I was pretty exhausted.
This journey then had to be repeated when the overcoat was ready for collection! However, I survived criss-crossing London eight times and he was very happy with his brand new overcoat!
A short while later my Father took it into his head, that rather than just give his 'old' overcoat to one of the local charity shops, he would head down to Waterloo Bridge and give it to one of the tramps who lived nearby. On the London bus journey he got quite hot, so took off his brand new coat. At Waterloo he gave a tramp an overcoat and got back on a bus to return home. During this journey he realised that he'd given the tramp his expensive brand new coat!
What to do? Could he return to find the tramp and ask for it back and replace it with the elderly worn coat? No, of course not!
What the tramp thought of being given such a quality coat we'll never know, but I bet he got several good years out of it!
When my Father was relating the story of the coat exchange, as soon as he mentioned he'd taken his off because he was hot - I just knew what was going to come next!
Fortunately, he had been one of the first volunteers for Crisis at Christmas, a charity founded in 1967, that provides shelter, food & clothing, dental & foot treatments, haircuts etc., and much much more for the homeless over the Christmas period in London, and, now in most major cities in the UK. Volunteers give up their Christmas to help provide basic human needs for a disadvantaged group of people who tend to be shunned or ignored, using whatever skills they have. Therefore, although he'd lost his much longed for overcoat, he was totally relaxed and stoically said, "C'est la vie"!
Dad contented himself a ready-made-off-the-shelf overcoat instead!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Barb Beattie on
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My story is about karma rewarding a good deed.
Sobey's has a promotion going right now where, for every $10 in groceries that you spend, you can collect stickers to use towards dinnerware. I'm not collecting as I have dishes I love. Plus, I'm trying to reduce the clutter in my life. The cashier was also chatting with the lady in line behind me and they were talking about her collecting the stickers. When the cashier asked me if I was collecting I said no but the lady behind me could have my stickers. I don't know why I never thought to donate them to the person behind me before but, whatever. I thought of it today.
It started snowing overnight last night and was still snowing when I left the store an hour after my arrival. I was struggling to pull (the snow was too deep to push) my cart to my vehicle. A younger lady saw me and came over to help.
I believe what goes around comes around but, gosh! I surely wasn't expecting Karma to find me so quickly!
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Permalink Reply by P. Jeanne Haessler on
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Awwww, what a great idea and isn't it lovely when people help like that? Karma can be a b*tch or really really nice. :)
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Permalink Reply by Jan Wilcox on
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I usually print out extra 40 %off coupons for Hobby Lobby and give them to other shoppers in the store. Many people do not realize they are available online. One older lady I gave one to saved a bunch on material she was buying to make her grandson with Downs curtains for his room.
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Permalink Reply by Pam Antink on
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How thoughtful Jan.
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Awwww, that's so great to hear, Jan. We just never know the "ripple effect" our kind actions and gestures can have on other people eh? I read a sign the other day that said smiling is contagious. I always remember my brother saying he was walking along quite grumpily when a lady going the other way beamed at him and he suddenly realized he was walking along the street grinning like an idiot. He said before he could stop himself he'd smiled at somebody working in their garden and they smiled back at him. He seemed quite put out that suddenly he wasn't in control of his own body. We've had several good laughs about it since.
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What a nice thing to do. I'm sure she appreciated it immensely.
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Okay now this lady is inspiring, she's done a good deed a day for all of 2012...great article.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/the-mum-who-did-365-good-deeds...
“I made my New Year’s resolution as I felt it would make me a better person, not that I was a bad person particularly, I’ve never killed a cat, I don’t even drop litter. But I was only an all right person and I felt I could do more. I thought I’d knock out a good deed each day and crack on with everything else I had to do. It didn’t turn out like that, it ate up my life. It became obsessive.”
Judith helped a blind old lady off a train – only realising later that she had failed to check which station the woman actually wanted to get off at.
Hahahah-it can happen to the best of us! I just think all of us can do little things every day and SOMEtimes they are 8"x8" eh?love, Jeanne xoxoxo
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Yes Jeanne, how many of us have done a 'good deed', but with not the quite expected results. The phrase, "I thought I was doing you a favour." comes to mind!
At least Judith managed to do 364 other good deeds !
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And maybe the lady did want to get off there after all. I can smile but I totally agree with doing good deeds. KASers do those everytime they pick up their knitting needles or crochet hooks or sew some fleece or felt a sweater. :)
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