Last week, I attended Ira's memorial service in his adopted, long-time home town of Menlo Park, California. A few people flew in from across the country, which may be par for the course in an age when airplanes ply the sky like buses. . . and the deceased often reach the ripe age of 90 allowing them to influence many lives. Ira influenced more people than most, however. But therein lies the "unsaintly" rub. His influence came at the expense of his two children and other loved ones who often … [Read more...]
Responding to Random Acts of Kindness while Hitchhiking ‘Round-the-World
Before getting to my reaction to RAKs on the road, one more example of amazing kindness: Under a Tuscan sun, a young optician gave me a lift. In a second act of random kindness, he invited me to meet his family as we approached his hometown. I soon got to know his mother, who was an M.D., and his brothers and sisters. After a fantastic home-cooked Italian meal, various members of his family played chess with me while we all drank wine and listened to classical music. I almost cried, … [Read more...]
Random Acts of Kindness in France?
When I hitchhiked in Europe, many Americans felt that the French lacked kindness. Even today many feel the French are rude and intolerant, especially toward anyone who fractures their language or disrespects their culture. My experiences in France in the sixties belied these stereotypes. Two illustratory examples:. In central France--in the eastern part--a middle-aged couple picked me up and after only a little conversation invited me to dinner at their home in Anncey. Before dinner, their … [Read more...]
Another in a series of blogs about random acts of kindness.
We've all heard of people who've paid bridge or highway tolls for the people behind them. During a hitched ride from Stonehenge to Emsworth, all generally southwest of London, an elderly man treated me to lunch and later, to four o'clock "tea" with delicious snacks of biscuits, scones and cakes. In Portsmouth, the man accidentally left his wallet on his car's trunk during a petrol (gas) stop. Just as he started the engine to drive off, two passing girls yelled to him about the … [Read more...]
Randomly selected Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) involving heroics that have made my day.
As part of a series of blogs about RAKs from my days as a hitchhiker, I offer these stories involving radically different sized vehicles. They show that everyday heroes come not only in all different sizes, shapes and colors but also in all different conveyances. Imagine my surprise when an empty bus roared past me and then came to a stop in a cloud of dust several hundred yards ahead of me. I half walked and half ran toward the bus, thinking it would be absurd for a bus to stop for a … [Read more...]
Little Heroic Acts by Others that have Made my Day.
Perhaps you see God at work in your daily life. Or Lady Luck? Random Acts of Kindness? I'd love to hear what makes your day. In Cleft Heart: Chasing Normal, I've related some of the amazing things that happened to me as I hitch-hiked and ship-hiked around the world in my youth. In the next few posts, I will share some vignettes about heroic kindness that I left out of my book. A screech of tires, a door flung open, and another random act of kindness. Whenever I accepted rides … [Read more...]
Who’re the Villains in the Boston Blasts & Did they Know they’d Create Heroes?
Care to speculate about who'd detonate pressure cookers filled with explosives, nails and shards of metal in a crowd of people? By so doing, these villains killed at least three innocent bystanders, wounded 170 more-- some of whom lost limbs—and terrorized countless others. President Barack Obama said officials don't know "whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual." Whoever the villain(s), he or they … [Read more...]