The Questions: Have you done anything unexpectedly generous to others? or Has anyone done anything unexpectedly generous to you? [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sPJSGDhpho[/YOUTUBE] Once, my mom, a friend, and I went to Wendy's. I ordered a new chicken flatbread, but they didn't have any made, and told me that it would take 10 minutes. So I waited for it, and decided a minute later to order a Frosty for myself. Instead of having to pay for it, the cashier gave all 3 of us free Frosties! All 3 of us thanked her for it. Also, the freshly made chicken flatbread was delicious. So, what random acts of kindness have you done, or another person has done to you?
This is not generosity. This is actually a fairly common practice among fast food managers. Instead of being angry at the long wait for your overpriced sandwich, you left the Wendy's happy. Happy customers are repeat customers. How much money have you, your mother, and your friend spent at Wendy's since this happened? I imagine that it's a great deal more than the price of those "free" milkshakes.
How much money? $0, and it's been a long time since that happened. Sure it is a common practice, but I still think it is generous.
I encounter this quite often. Door holding is something I see every day. One fun story I have about random acts of kindness was that when I was 16 I had pink hair and was in my junior year of high school. I was standing in line being bored when I noticed someone having trouble with his order. He was coming up short on the money he had; he needed 50 cents and nobody was willing to spot him any. They had money for their meals, but not for him. I stepped out of line, cut ahead of fifteen or so people, and offered to pay for his meal on my meal card. He thanked me, I ordered our meals together, and a minute later they were handed to us. He handed me his cash but I told him to keep it. From then on he would always greet me with a cheery "Hey pink dude!" whenever he saw me. Two months later, he joined our school's theater group which I was also in. He ended up sticking around and is certainly someone I am glad I met. I've done similar things for other people if I found myself in a situation with the resources to do so, but that one worked out in an especially enjoyable way.
I try to help people whenever I can... I don't actively try to use it as leverage or anything, but I do feel good about it. The "do to others what you expect them to do for you" philosophy is certainly a nice one to have, but I think it's important to not feel entitled to kindness even if you give it out generously. Sometimes people will just be total a-holes and no amount of being kind to them will change that; I just get a sense of satisfaction from doing good for good's sake. It doesn't cost me anything to hold a door for someone or help a stranger with directions. And even bigger things that do cost me, like lending someone some money or giving a friend a place to stay for a night, they are a little bit more of an inconvenience but as long as you are vigilant enough to not let someone take advantage of you then again it does more good than what it costs... I've made really good friends by trying to be helpful or generous and even if they haven't all paid me back somehow, the ones that have were worth it.
I do random acts of generousity fairly often, but I can't stand it when people are generous to me. Idk why, but it makes me uncomfortable...
