We made it! How was your day? This is our new Wednesday night feature: The audience dare!
This was suggested by the lovely Miss Sally J. and I really like the idea. Today’s dare is to Pay It Forward.
I am a sucker for Holiday season giving cheesiness. I love a Christmas movie with a “the spirit is in the giving, not the getting” type of message. I also really love random acts of kindness – both performing and receiving. So your challenge for today (or tomorrow if you’re reading this at home and won’t be going out again) is to do something nice for a stranger. Pay the toll for the person behind you, give $5 or $10 towards the person’s dinner behind you in the fast food lane, or the Starbucks or wherever. Short on cash? Be creative. And don’t forget to tell us about it in the comments today or tomorrow. Here is a little song that came up on my Pandora today. I’m taking it as a sign.
2 replies on “Wednesday Wrap-Up: Audience Dare”
I did not have a chance to do it yesterday, but every year when I’m doing my shopping, I buy books for kids at the bookstore. One of the local places has a drive to get books for kids who are stuck in the hospital over the holidays. Usually Charlotte’s Web or Maniac Magee, since those were my favorites growing up. It’s on my to-do list, as I am dreadfully behind on shopping.
The husband and I also just dropped a sizeable donation toward the state marriage equality organization in honor of our recent getting hitched. I found out last night that it’s going to pay for TWELVE PEOPLE – that’s a third of a busful! – who couldn’t afford otherwise to go on the annual lobby trip to the other side of the state. I was pretty pleased about that.
I love this sort of thing. One day my husband was eating lunch with his co-workers and saw an older gentleman with a hat on that indicated he was a WWII veteran (I’m not sure exactly what kind of hat, but I’m sure you’ve seen them before). He was sitting at the counter alone, talking to the waitresses. When the waitress came back to the table, my husband told her to add that man’s check to his bill. His co-workers were amazed that he would do that.
Another time, we were driving to Wisconsin (or was it Toronto? I forget), and had stopped at a rest stop along one of the toll roads. My husband and I split up – he went to the restroom and I went to get drinks. I got our pop, went to the counter, pulled out my wallet and realized that the money had decided to take a potty break with my husband. I apologized profusely, left the pop there and told the cashier that I’d be right back. I found my husband, told him how much of a dork I was, got money from him, but when I came back, the cashier told me that the drinks were paid for – someone behind me had paid for them! I was so touched, and slightly sad because by the time I got back, the person was gone, so I couldn’t thank them. I wanted to do the same thing, but there was no one else in the store, and all we had were 20s, so I couldn’t just leave money there.
I’ve given random people coupons. I’m terrible about using them, so if I’m in a store and I have one, I’ll give it to someone who I think might use it. Otherwise, I’m kind of oblivious. I should make more of an effort to do something like a random act of kindness.