Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
I got stuck in the sand on Friday, well my car did anyway, and it was the kindness of strangers that set me free.
Credit where credit’s due, the two strapping passengers I had with me jumped out of the car without even needing to be asked and started pushing with all their might but as hard as they tried, the car wouldn’t budge.
Just as I was about to give up, call a friend from inside the party I’d just left and get her to send over a small army of muscle boys to help ‘unsand’ me, two labourers walked over, knocked a couple of rocks together slipped them under the two front tyres and I was free in seconds.
Their good deed done, they kept right on walking and were gone almost before I even had a chance to call out my gratitude. It was a completely unselfish act for which they seemed embarrassed to be recognised for and it left the three of us chattering on about how very nice and kind they were to have bothered to help us.
We live in a world where we’re so busy taking care of ourselves, we’re oblivious to what’s going on around us. These two gentlemen showed us how a simple random act of kindness can restore your faith in the goodness of humanity.
The sad truth is that we are all so egocentric these days, life is all about making sure that we make it through and have everything that we need, or want, to make our own lives a little bit better.
We’re so busy with ourselves, we ignore other things that are going on around us.
We’ve all heard the expression ‘the world doesn’t revolve around you’ and in all honesty that’s total rubbish. Of course, the world revolves around each and everyone of us. Our lives are our own and everyone else just plays a bit part. Equally we are each bit players in other people’s lives.
We need others for our little worlds to keep revolving around us … so why not be there for others, too?
Even the smallest gesture can make all the difference in a person’s day/life and if we could all just do one simple thing each week for someone we don’t know, can you imagine how different the world would be?
To be able to believe in the goodness of people rather than rely on their selfishness would make the world a better place.
In the words of French novalist Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, best known by her pseudonym George Sand: “Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”
