I don’t often have a story to tell, but when I woke up this morning about 2 hours before the alarm was to go off, I couldn’t stop thinking about the events of the last 24 hours.

After an hour of telling the story in my head, and obviously *not* going back to sleep, I headed for the computer, before it was gone forever.

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Yesterday I was involved in a few geek discussions regarding, what else, online retail, and several geeks said some nice things about me that put me in a great mood. Maybe that explains why I did what I did, or maybe I would have done it anyway. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

Last night I left the warehouse at about 8:30p (a little earlier than usual ) When I was almost home I passed a Chevy Blazer on the side of the road, hood up, people huddled nearby. They appeared to have everything under control, but then I thought…why not ask just in case?

So I stopped the car, backed up a few feet, rolled the window down and asked them if they needed anything. The young man (was he old enough to drive?) asked if I had a jack, to which I replied yes, but I believe it’s specific to my minivan, and probably not much help. “Anything else?”, I asked. He asked if I had a lug wrench. I said ditto, custom.

I thought about it for a moment and since I hadn’t done anything too crazy in quite some time, I offered to go home and get my jack and tools and bring them back. I don’t think he believed me, but I headed toward home anyway.

When I reached the house I went in and said hello to my wife, goodnight to my kids, and told them if I didn’t return in an hour to call the police. She said “Wha???” I explained that I was going back to help some kids change their tire. My son, 8, said “But dad, what if you *do* come home in an hour?” I said “Then I was worried for nothing. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

So I went to the garage and grabbed my hydraulic jack that hasn’t been used in at least 8 years, the one my wife keeps begging me to sell at the yearly garage sale. “You’ll never use it, why do we have to keep dragging it around every time we move?” HA, payback. Strike a blow for the “keep everything because you never know when it might come in handy” camp!

I grabbed my toolbox (another garage item that barely sees the light of day…thank you Jiffy Lube!) and headed back to the Blazer. When I arrived the young man thanked me for coming back, pointing out that no one else in the neighborhood had stopped or given them notice. I handed him the jack and grabbed my flashlight, another item which they were lacking. He pulled his little scissor jack from underneath the car and replaced it with my, now inadequate-looking, hydraulic jack. The Blazer had about 15” of clearance, and my jack at full height barely touched the frame.

Luckily for us I have about 50 broken down cardboard boxes in the back of my van which I have neglected to recycle (it’s not really time until I can’t see out my back window!) We grabbed several boxes and placed them on the ground, set the jack on top and started pumping. It helped, but in addition to the clearance, we had to jack it up high enough to overcome the suspension (another aftermarket addition that would not be in our favor).

After a few moments of thought, looking around at what we had to work with, I suggested something that I’m pretty sure is *not* in the AAA manual. We could put his scissor jack on top of my hydraulic jack. Of course I was thinking the same thing that you are….”I’m glad this isn’t MY car!” And also wondering how high we’d get before the car spit both jacks back out at us and laughed as it crashed to the ground.

He took it slow, first the scissor jack as high as it would go, then my jack. It was working! We could just see under the flat tire now and he was able to remove it. But we all know that the replacement tire will not be as accommodating without a flat side. So we jacked it up a little more, a little more (it was looking rather precarious now) and bingo, the new tire slid on.

The young man thanked me, and I wanted to tell him no thanks were necessary, just please do something nice for someone else. But since I didn’t want to sound like his father, I just said “You’re welcome. No more flat tires tonight, ok? And don’t forget to buy a new jack!”

With that I headed home to find my kids asleep, and my wife happy that everything went well.

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I went into more detail than I thought I would, but the story would have seemed disjointed to me if I hadn’t. But the point I was trying to make, the point that was made to me, is that making people feel good is contagious. Kindness is a disease for which I hope they never find a cure, even though sometimes it feels as if they’ve found it, and everyone has been inoculated.

It’s easy to think about ourselves all the time, but how great would the world be if we thought about others just as much? My dad lived in a time when you didn’t think twice about helping someone in need. He wouldn’t have hesitated to jump out and lend a hand. These days you have to consider all of the possible outcomes before getting involved, lest ye be sued or molested or who knows what. The fact that I thought to warn my wife of possible fowl play should say it all.

My dad passed away a little over a year ago, but he was one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. Always smiling and helpful to a fault. He would frequently talk to strangers anywhere just because, with us kids in the background thinking “Dad, stop doing that, you’re embarrassing us!” But now I find myself doing it, and feeling like it has a small but significant impact on the world.

For example, last night, feeling good about myself thanks to my fellow geeks, I ordered my favorite takeout from Red Robin, a Bonzai Burger (if my wife reads this I’ll get a quick lecture, but it’s worth it!) As I was leaving Red Robin, I looked over at the revolving door that my kids love to spin around in, and 2 grown women were bumping around in a single compartment and laughing. They looked over at me and I gave them a fatherly look and said “Am I gonna have to separate you two?” and they busted up. I’m glad I made the choice to be involved, however slightly, rather than ignore them and keep to myself.

I wish everyone could have been raised by parents like mine. I grew up having fun, laughing, singing, playing games. I realize that this doesn’t seem to happen as much as it used to, and we have less and less to laugh and sing about. All I can really do is be me, trying to give something to other people that may not have been as lucky. And also honor my parents by trying to instill the same values in my children. I can see this happening in them already, and it makes me very proud.


I was telling my wife just the other day that it’s time that we started thinking of ourselves as one race…the human race. We are *not* white, black, Asian, Christian, Muslim, atheist, gay, straight, we are people. And every person in the world deserves to be happy, no one more than another.


This morning as I was thinking about this story, and my dad, I felt a happy tear escape my eye. At that moment I heard a clicking noise, which in a moment turned into a pretty good rain. I know in my head the two events were unconnected, but in my heart I hoped the rain was a sign that my dad was shedding the same tears of joy.


Please take the time to make someone happy!

Tom

Btw, I laughed out loud on my way to the warehouse this morning. As I passed the site of the incident, not 50 feet away, were 2 boards lying along the side of the street, perfect for putting under a jack

Edit: Thank you for the Geek Gold donations, but I really have all I need. So please use it for something for yourself, or pass it on to others that may be close to an avatar

Funny. Reminds me of a Simpson's episode where Homer is rushing out the door (to do something profoundly stupid I'm sure) and he says something to the effect of "Gotta go Marge, if I don't come back avenge my death"

Thanks for the little boost. Always nice to hear about someone being good to others.

Thank you

It's always a pleasure to read about random acts of kindness. So will I be expecting a personalized message from you in my most recent order?

But then it wouldn't be random, would it?!

Tom

Great story! You have to work to create the kind of world you want to live in, even if it's inconvenient or risky. If someone's not going to take the responsibility for this, then they have no room to complain when people ignore them in similar fashion.

Ah hah, since my order has already been shipped, that would mean that if I do happen to receive a nice message, it would have been random. I'm just being hopeful

    I was more concerned for YOUR legs. I'm skittish when it's just a single jack holding the beast in the air.

             Sag.

Thank you..that was very nice of you. We should do that more often =)

To me, that is what my time on earth is all about. Thank you for sharing this.

Thank you Tom!
Eloquently written.
Now I have to just go out and pass the goodness on. :-)

Thank you :-)

Kindness is a great thing! We should not let ourselves to be turned into "Isolates" (as a noun).

What we too often forget is that we all depend on one another, that in truth everything around us is a system of cooperation and support (speaking of the universe) and that at the deepest level everything and everyone is interconnected in the most intricate way.

But that's all philosophy... the best about kindness and love is - it feels good :-) and it makes people happy.

Later

It's not everyday you read an uplifting "pay it forward" type of post on BGG. Nicely refreshing.

Well done,
Nick

Gosh, I feel so good I might just go and buy a board game on-line. Anyone know a good site? :-)

Nothing comes to mind. I think you should support your FLGS!

Tom

You know, this really reminds me of an experience I had a month or two back. I was going out to my garage to do some work and opened my garage door to let the sunlight in only to find a sobbing girl on a bike at the end of my driveway, probably 10 years old or so. I went out to her to see what was wrong and it turned out that both of her bike tires had gone flat on her way to school (although they were so completely flat that I'm guessing they were both flat when she left her house). Since I have an air compressor in the garage, I brought her in and gave the tires a quick fill up. The smile on her face was priceless as I screwed the caps back on her tires and sent her on her way.

Then, a realization of the current state of the world struck me and I thought to myself, "Holy crap! That girl probably never should have come into my garage. What if I had been some pedophile or something?" I answered myself by thinking, "Well, I'm not a pedophile. The good Lord put her at the end of my driveway because he knew I'd help." But still, the fact that the thought crossed my mind was a little scary. I guess for me, my faith tends to make me err toward the trusting side, and I agree that everyone deserves human compassion regardless of race, religion, or whatever else. I'd rather get burned and cheated a few times rather than turn away someone who really truly needs my help.

Good job Tom!

A number of years ago I was driving down a nasty stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, with really narrow cramped shoulders on one side only, and blew out a tire.

It was a fairly new car, and I was unable to loosen the factory-tightened lugnuts no matter how much I tried.

A trucker pulled over and helped me...

Less than 5 miles down the road I saw two teenagers standing by a car with a raised hood. I pulled over and gave them a lift to a phone (these were the days before cellphones.)

I believe in "paying forward" good deeds, but it's never been so direct and obvious as that!

(And yes, I have helped strangers change tires a few times since that day.)

This is the point where I got the feeling that, near the end of the story, there was going to be a graphic description of an impossible-to-please BGG'er being beaten to death with a jack handle. "No, dude, don't post that!"

Very nice story, and exactly the kind of state of mind I trey to keep to. Get involved in strangers, talk to them, laugh with them. The world gets brighter.

You mentioned kindness is contagious. Well, there is actually some experiments that prove that kindness is MORE contagious than the opposite. I never knew where I read it, but it was about holding the door up for the next guy or not doing that, letting it close on him. The next guy was prone to imitate whatever behavious the first had shown, either holding up the door or letting it close on the next guy's face. They measured how many "generations" this door slamming or door holding held. The door holding held longer.

So… there is hope for kindness.

Thank you so much for sharing this story. Kindness and happiness are defenitely contagious.

Like your father, my father would stop to help someone in a moment. I always think twice before doing nice things as our world is crazy sometime.

Somedays I wish I lived in his time. I think the world was a much kinder place back then. There was no need to lock your doors or worry about your kids running around the neighbourhood unsupervised. Things were safe. And no that wasn't being naive.

If we don't like the things around us it is up to us to make the change.

Thanks again,
Michael