#3 Hurricane Sandy (We got KIC’d)

Tags

Giving, humanist, philosophy, random acts of kindness

Alongside the convoys of electrical trucks and disaster cleanup vehicles, I traveled from Michigan to the Washington D.C. area, just in time for, ”Hurricane Sandy”.  It was a gloomy drive, through drizzle and rain and occasional downpours, with winds ever-increasing, as I neared my destination.  I arrived at my son’s doorstep around 10pm, Sunday night.

We watched the weather on T.V. and computer, as we heard the air whistling around and through the windows and doors, all night long.  On Monday we played some Scrabble, and stayed indoors, while my son occasionally ventured a few blocks to check the river bank creep well over its normal edge.  As day soon became night, we saw the lights flash on and off a few times—we knew total darkness was imminent.  About 8pm we were startled by hearing a loud knock at the door.  We looked at each other strangely wondering, “Who could possibly be out there?”  I silently thought it might be the police, here to order us to evacuate.  It wasn’t the police, when my son opened the door, but, the neighbors, Patrick and Kristin, carrying a plate of “Hurricane Cookies”.   Being from Michigan, I had never been through a hurricane before, and naively asked, “What are ‘Hurricane Cookies?’”  Kristin kindly chuckled that they are just any cookies, but, made during a hurricane.  Patrick assured my son and daughter-in-law that, if the power went out during the night, they’d share their generator with us, to save the refrigerated foods.  The neighbors returned to the safety and comfort of their own home, as we settled around the T.V. for continuing weather up-dates, munching on delicious peanut butter cookies.  About 11:30 that night, the power went out and the sounds of the whipping winds lulled us all to sleep.

In the morning, we had cookies and milk for breakfast and hooked up to neighbors’ generator.  We spent the day playing games, while listening to the battery operated radio, with my son frequently checking the river.  Around 2pm the lights, in the house, flickered on and off several times, until about 4:30, when they came on for good.  I ate the last “Hurricane Cookie” on Tuesday.

Unbeknownst to Patrick and Kristin, they had KIC’d Steve and Marcy and me; how kind, how thoughtful, how generous, how random.  They deserve a KIC back!!

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#2 Operation Money Drop

Tags

funny, random acts of kindness

Tuesday marked our second KIC action.  But, first allow me to tell you my experience leading up to this particular KIC. It was HILARIOUS!  The day started at the Bank where Steve and I decided to take out some money, (dollar bills) to randomly stash in unexpected places at some of our local discount stores.  After handing over a withdraw slip the teller asked me (in a thick accent from some faraway place), if I, “have a preference in bills”.  I said no thank you and received every size bill other than singles.  By the time I realized this I was too embarrassed to turn around and ask for dollar bills. I was afraid of how the teller might get irritated with me after asking for one’s despite my original intent.  I briskly walked back to the car and told Steven.  He laughed at me and went in to trade the bills.  This timid, bashful, almost suspicious feeling would set my mood for the rest of the day.

The first store we went to we placed the dollars in bags, books, and even in the toy section.  It took me back to when I was a child and I found a dollar on the ground or someone gave me one, (that feeling of excitement) even if it was a dollar, it’s one more than I had when I started the day, right?  That’s exactly the feeling I hope we left our unsuspecting KIC’s with.

We did this at one other discount store and one discount grocery store.  The grocery store was the funniest as I felt like I was on a secret mission.  I must have looked so suspicious.  I would glance at everyone around me ensuring not a single stray eye was trained on me before slipping money between powdered gravy, or into an accessible crease in a package.  I almost felt as though I was doing something wrong.  I imagined an employee might call me out. What would I do?  I thought; I might have to run!  That would be funny!?!?

As we were leaving the store the parking lot was busy with costumers coming and going, so I dropped my last dollar on the ground outside the store.  I tried to be as discrete as possible but Steven was caught unaware, and saw it drop to the ground out of the corner of his eye and said, “oh you dropped-.”, we both laughed!  I can’t help but to wonder who found the KIC’s.  I would have loved to have seen all the faces and known the stories of the people who found our gifts. Out of curiosity, we staked out the very last dollar I dropped.  We watched from the car as several people walked right passed it and didn’t even notice.  Finally an elder man noticed it and even took a second glance but didn’t pick it up.  It made me curious? Why didn’t he pick it up?  Did he think it was real? Was he paying his luck forward and leaving it for someone who really needed it? Either way he left it for another man who identified himself as, “MJ”. MJ walked passed it.  Then his head darted to the ground and he slowly reached down to pick it up.  I had to get the story from him, or at least made Steven flag him down to get some info.  We wrapped each dollar with a card that said, “Please accept this gift, let our random acts of kindness lead to random smiles”. Just as MJ started to walk away Steven approached him. Steven asked if he could talk to him, and asked for a picture or video but MJ was in a bit of a rush because he was on his lunch break.  MJ told him he had a moral obligation to return things that did not belong to him but since it was a gift he was allowed to keep it.  I thought that was an admirable response.  Overall the mission was successful, despite my bashfulness! I really hope we were able to inspire a few smiles.

“Everyone smiles in the same language”~ Unknown

Marcy’s Trendy Introduction

Tags

humanist, philosophy, random acts of kindness

Call it crazy but I’m fascinated with people.  Have you ever stopped in the middle of the chaos we call life and just watched the average Joe go about his/her day?  If I had a dime for every person I saw deeply exhale and place their head on their palm while precariously waiting in traffic, or cover their face with their hands.  I’m pretty sure I’d be close to having a million dollars.  What if every time that happened, you intervened with something positive to offer, even if it was just a compliment or a smile?  Think about how much of an impact that would make, if everyone made an effort to do this on a daily basis?

So with that thought in mind let me give you a little insight on who I am and how we arrived at this idea; well my name is Marcy.  I pride myself on being a mother and a wife.  I am currently a United States Army Sergeant (I say Hooah!), and I’m always up for a new challenge.  I was being adventurous from my living room couch one day, surfing the waves of Pinterest when I came across a few links from people who did random acts of kindness during the holidays and I thought what if I make a point to do this all the time?  So I brought it up and it was Steven’s great idea to blog about it.  So here we are!

I really hope that these acts become contagious and not in the chicken pox kind of way, but in the seasonal Jimmy Choo, ‘mint green pants’ trend kind of way.  Then again, maybe chicken pox are more contagious, LOL.

“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give” ~Winston Churchill.

#1 Give out scratch tickets!

Tags

Giving, random acts of kindness

Our first KIC was to give out envelopes with two one dollar scratch tickets in them.  The guy holding up the ticket won two dollars, wish it was more, but at least it was something. Right?

We gave out three other scratch packages yesterday.  Let’s hope there were more winners in those.  If anything else everyone seemed happy to receive them, which makes us happy too.

If you happen to get KIC’ed by me or my wife, there will be a url to this blog, and an email address.  We hope our victims will report on their experiences in the future.

After it was all said and done, yesterday was a great first day.

“Sow much, reap much; Sow little, reap little.” ~ Chinese Proverb

My Introduction; In Light of the Nicomachean Ethics

Tags

philosophy, random acts of kindness

Hello and welcome to the KICMovement blog.  My name is Steve.  I am a retired veteran, and currently a student.  Please enjoy our blog, and feel free to leave comments.

When my wife came to me with the Idea of doing random acts of kindness I was inspired.  The KICMovement is our attempt to make the world a better place for everyone.  If you took note of the title of this post, more specifically the last two words, “Nicomachean Ethics”, you will know that I am also inspired by Aristotle.  Aristotle wrote his best philosophical works with his son Nicomachas in mind.  His overall understanding was that we (humans), have a desire end to seek happiness, this I believe is true.  My main drive in the KICMovement is to inspire my daughter much the same way my wife has inspired me to do good things for people, as often we can.

I really do hope we can positively affect people, if only to put a smile on their faces for a few minutes.  This is our opportunity to stop complaining about all that is wrong in the world, and start doing good things.