I hate grocery shopping. I mean HATE it. There are few household chores that are worse, in my opinion, than spending hours navigating shelves and aisles in a desperate attempt to hunt and gather for the ol’ family. And as a short person, the humiliation of trying to find someone who is willing to snag items from the top shelves – NO THANK YOU. Luckily, my husband does not share my hatred of this weekly ritual, so he has taken it over and made this mama much happier.
Anyway, he was shopping last weekend and was behind a young mother in the checkout line. She was holding and playing with her baby and having a sweet moment, but when it came time to put her groceries on the belt, she attempted to put baby back in the cart. Baby was having none of it. Baby demanded to be held (no judgement – my daughter was one of those velcro babies). The mama was trying to hold baby and put her groceries on the belt when my modern-day knight asked if he could get her groceries out for her. The young mother thanked him profusely, he helped her out, and thought nothing of it. After he checked out and attempted to pay, the cashier told him “this is your lucky day!” and informed him the young mother had paid for his groceries. OK, that was super sweet, but check this out – it was $140 AND SHE PAID WITH AN EBT CARD. Yes, that sweet mama used her assistance to pay for our groceries.
Now this moved me for a couple of reasons. First of all, that something as normal as helping out another human being made such an impact on her…is simple kindness being directed at her NOT the norm? That thought makes my heart hurt. And the fact that she was so moved to use her assistance to pay – I don’t know about you, but I am getting all sorts of widow’s mite vibes.
I guess my takeaway is that kindness is not normalized in our society at the moment. That such a radical act of kindness (the young mama paying for our groceries) would be the response to such a simple, human act tells me that kindness is kind of weird, kind of eccentric. Acts of kindness make the six o’clock news, for pete’s sake, as anomalies!
Well, as I tell my daughter “let your freak flag fly!”. Let’s be weirdos and make being kind as natural as breathing. Let’s be crackpots and screwballs and nutcases and spread kindness like buttah on hot toast. Tell that stranger you like their shoes. Hold that door 10 seconds longer. Make someone feel like they matter. Stop being so judgey. Look for the best instead of expecting the worst in people. We are all in this thing together.
