Upon arriving to my dad’s house, I leafed through the local newspaper: the Waterloo Record, I came across this article for the return of random act of kindness day on November 13th. I thought that the idea was cool, and have long subscribed to the belief that if you do something nice (and unexpected) for someone, they are far more likely to pass it on. The little thing that I like to do, to counter what I feel is unfairness about the parking receipt system (versus parking meters, where money left on a meter could be enjoyed by the next person who pulls into the spot) is to give a ticket with time left on it to the next person I see pulling in as a leave a parking lot/space. Of course, since this only works if someone happens to time it just right, I have since taken to leaving the ticket sticking out of the machine so the next person sees it before putting money in. Anyway, let me tell you what got me on this topic:
Yesterday was errand upon errand day, preparing for the third (and final!) wedding ceremony Luc and I have planned, and our honeymoon. One of the top priorities was to get the bridesmaid’s dress finished. The first shop couldn’t help (at least not same day, which I desperately needed), so we headed on to the next one. After get caught detours and wrong turns we found a parking lot near where we thought the next shop was. We paid for a half hour of parking, and the receipt read that it was paid up to 11:11. Something just seemed lucky about that, but the superstitiousness that led to that thought led me to keep it to myself for fear of “breaking” it. (Silly, I know, but everybody has those superstitious moments). We found the shop, and sure enough they agreed to take care of it same day (even though at first they were talking about the next morning). We were back to the parking lot in no time, and as we walked up, I saw a woman about the buy a parking ticket. I ran up to ask if she wanted hours, but she was planning to stay for several hours, so my 20 minutes wasn’t about to help her greatly. She seemed to think that the idea was really cool though. So I stuck the ticket into the change slot of the machine, and we were off for our next errand.
Just after 4:30, we were back to pick up the dress. To my (very pleasant) surprise, I found a ticket with 20 minutes left on it stuck in the machine. I stuck it on the windshield, my mind churning in wonder at our luck, and wondering whether it was the same person. When we got back to the car (with still a good 15 minutes left on the ticket, I checked the time of purchase and put the ticket back in the machine). It wasn’t hers. I actually can’t decide whether it being hers, or it not being hers makes the story even better, but either way, I absolutely love that there are probably tons of other people out there that do that, although I’d never seen it before (actually, just a couple of weeks ago, someone gave Luc and I one with hours left on it in Mulhouse, so this was the second time, but you get the idea).
So while I think that random act of kindness day is great, why wait for November 13th? You never know how much impact a small gesture could have on someone else. I realize that getting my 5 minutes of parking free thanks to someone else (rather than having to pay the minimum half hour) is minor, but it just makes your day (good or bad) so much better.
