Random Acts of Kindness
Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday!
Random acts of kindness (I'll give it the acronym RAOK from here on): the term means doing something nice for someone else for no reason at all, and expecting nothing in return. It's a catchy concept because if enough people committed enough of these acts, the world would become a nice place. Randomly nice. People would go around putting money in other people's expired parking meters, and giving up good parking spots, and cleaning up after other people's dogs. Ew. But so nice!
The concept ebbs and flows in popularity over time. I remember the movie "Pay It Forward" spurring a flurry of popularity for random acts of kindness that some of my friends really adopted as a life-changing mentality... which mostly petered out over the following year. Various organizations have tried to "organize" the idea with things like "Random Acts of Kindness Week," which had some success but it seems a bit counterproductive. Why take the randomness out of the random acts?
So, randomly, I'm giving myself an assignment to perform at least one solid RAOK per day for the next two days, and I'll report my experience back here in my Wednesday post. (Note: I just realized that RAOK is a really unattractive acronym for such a nice idea. It sounds like a hairball. Oh well, too late now.) If you want to join me on my mission, please do! And tell us your RAOK stories in the comment section!
-Brigitte
Do you have a comment? We'd love to hear what you think!
Do you have a question that we haven’t answered yet in About SAM-e? If so, please Ask Us a Question.
Comment Policy
We value your comment. Please see our comment policy for more details on our guidelines for commenting.
Comments
romeo Monday, May 10, 2010
a court commisioner once told me that the road to hell is filled with good intentions...
talking about it gratify's the ego and not much else.
premeditated acts are'nt quite as random nor is it spontaneous isn't it?
a gift requires no acknowledgement like ones from santa or the diety of your choice.
may be a good friend like the ones that say don't mention it -when they do something amazing for you.
a present implies conditions like a doggie treat for being good or not smoking.
Joe436 Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I'm in a really bad mood this week, I blame work. But I'll give it a try anyway. Maybe it will cheer me up.
Shelly Tuesday, May 11, 2010
What a great idea ..... I think I will join you in two days of random acts of kindness
David Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Great idea! So far I'm noticing that I need to develop a knack for recognizing opportunities for RAOKs. Otherwise I don't realize until it's too late that I had a chance to go out of my way to do something nice, but missed the opportunity.
Mary Wednesday, May 12, 2010
My life has turned around since I began taking Sam E, so, my RAOK will be to share this amazing product with everyone I know. What better way to show kindness to someone then to bring them the opportunity to turn their lives around as well. One of my co-workers is now taking Sam E after seeing my results and is happy he chose to join the Sam E team...thank you Sam E