The kindness of strangers
Parking downtown is a hassle. I hate driving through traffic, trying to pay attention to pedestrians, open parking meters, stoplights that turn red when I'm two feet from the intersection and mapping out my destination in my head in relavance to where I currently am on the street.When I finally find that "golden" parking space in front of the business I am going to, it's such a relief, but also an inconvienence knowing that every two hours I must run outside and feed the meter with my remaining laundry money. So the other day I had a hair appointment on Market Street, where I found a parking spot right in front of the doors, knowing that if I needed to extend the minutes on my meter I could run out the door and do so. On this particular day, I was immersed in tinfoil and not presentable to step foot in public, so I decided to suffer the consequences of my expired meter and settle for a ticket. I only had about 30 minutes left at the salon and about 20 minutes left on my meter. "Who's going to notice 10 minutes anyway?"
My 30 minute projected salon time turned into another hour, which made my parking time expire 40 minutes by the time I got to my car. When I reached my parking spot, I noticed there was no ticket. Glancing at the parking meter, someone had filled it, obviously seeing that my time had run out. None of my friends knew I was there, so they wouldn't be conveinently passing by my car and filling the meter with quarters. As I got in my car to leave, I was touched and suprised that a stranger had filled my meter, just because they wanted to. What was the benefit for them? They weren't going to get a thank-you note, they left no information or a Post It telling me they filled my meter. There's no instant gratification for them except knowing that they saved someone from the "parking police".
The rest of my day was spent thinking that if each of us did one kind thing every day for someone we don't know, it would change the course of everyone's day--from a smile in passing, offering change at the cash register when they're digging in their pocket or purse for that last nickel, holding the door to a business or elevator or preventing a parking ticket.
posted by erin @ 2:31 PM
<< Home