I took a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day in search of a mirror — not for myself, but for a friend, who had spent the night before lamenting about prying shards of broken glass from her sandals.
She politely refused my offer to help clean the dangerous mess, so I figured a surprise replacement might cheer her up.
After a frustrating walk around Bed and Bath (and, seemingly, into the Beyond), I finally found the mirror — in front of the store, of course, not 5 feet from the register.
As the clerk fumbled with the customer in front of me, I resisted the urge to complain, reassuring him that I was in no hurry — for once, I actually wasn’t.
As I turned back towards the display of mirrors, an elderly woman extended her hand to me.
“What was she asking me for?” I thought to myself. “What did I do now?”
The woman handed me a flimsy piece of paper. A coupon.
“Here, dear,” she said. “I’ve got a million of these.”
The coupon’s value was inconsequential; the woman’s gesture was so kind, so unexpected, that I momentarily lost composure, gushing thank-yous like a first-time Grammy winner. (It was a $5 off coupon, but honestly, it could’ve been 5 cents off and I still would’ve been elated.)
An over-reaction? Probably.
But in today’s selfish, me-me-me world, it’s become all too rare to see someone do something genuinely nice for someone else.
I last encountered such an altruist about six months ago, walking across the Binghamton University campus on a windy winter afternoon.
Heading over to pick up a paycheck from the Couper Administration Building, I ran into one of the school’s top administrators, a man often vilified by several of BU’s vindictive student media organizations.
Tired and hungry in the midst of my on-campus errands, I greeted the administrator and congratulated him on his recent promotion.
He grinned ear-to-ear and thanked me as I shivered, trying to mask how cold I was.
“What are you doing out here without a jacket? It’s the middle of winter. Come with me,” he insisted. (For the record, I lost my favorite fleece somewhere in class a few weeks before, and needed this paycheck to go replace it.)
He brought me into his office and offered me a green Binghamton University jacket, right off of a rack near his desk.
That afternoon, I realized the importance of doing kind things for others, and pledged to myself to try it once in a while. Encountering the sweet old lady at the register was a second reminder to me that life isn’t always about you.
Yet you can make that difference. Hold the door for a stranger. Wave the elderly couple across the street, instead of speeding through that left turn. Or give away one of your 10 coupons the next time you approach the register. See how much it truly brightens someone’s day.
Strub is a senior at Binghamton University, a part-time copy editor at the Press & Sun-Bulletin and a new resident of Binghamton’s West Side.
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