I find a lot of stories about random acts of kindness. Usually there is some sort of spontaneous impulse behind the action. Sometimes it’s part of an active plan: “Every Monday I’ll do a random act of kindness”. Whatever the impulse, they always make me smile and warm my heart. The story I came across today just lit up my world though. Declan Cashin, an Irish writer on staff with the Independent in Dublin, decided to make an entire day out of random acts of kindness. What was so charming about his endeavor wasn’t just the kindnesses he tired to share, but the reactions he came up against all day long. Some people just aren’t in the mood for any ol’ guy to come up and force niceness on them. But he persisted. And it seems like his day was all the better for it.

Of course, the whole point of the exercise is to integrate small altruistic gestures into your everyday life, rather than cram lots into one day like I did. Nevertheless, spending the day performing kind acts convinced me of one thing: in general, people are highly suspicious of strangers being nice to them.

To be fair, a lot of people responded well once they realized I was on the level, but many others walked away from me, or ignored me (having a photographer in tow probably doesn’t help).

I don’t think it’s anything to do with safety or feeling intimidated. Instead, I think we all just automatically assume that if some randomer approaches us offering to be nice then they must be selling something, or trying to get money out of us in some way. That’s just a bit sad, isn’t it?

I’m really getting into the spirit of things now. I wrack my brains to figure out where would be the next best spot to target folk with some kindness. Then it comes to me: bankers! I head down to the IFSC, passing a flower stand where I pick up a bunch of roses. When I get down there, I lurk on a corner until I spot a busy-looking girl on her way to work. I approach her and offer her the roses, but she deploys some wonderfully rich Anglo-Saxon language to put me in my place.

Undeterred, I wait a minute and offer them to a second girl. I’m expecting to get pepper spray in the eyes, but to my surprise she stops, laughs and even agrees to pose for a picture.

I’m on a roll. I pop over to a coffee shop for my daily caffeine transfusion, and ask a man and woman behind me if I can buy their coffees. They take some convincing, but I keep insisting and they eventually agree. We even end up chatting for a few minutes.

Heading back towards town, I pop into Tesco for some lunch. While paying, I ask the lady behind me if she has a clubcard, and, if so, would she like the points from my purchases? Happily, she has a card and very gratefully accepts.

On the way out I see an older lady with two plastic bags and offer to carry her bags to the bus stop. She refuses at first, but I tell her I’m heading that way anyway. She hands them over and we have a lovely chat about her recent trip to Mexico. I realise that my life seems lame and boring in comparison. Perhaps she should carry my bags?

Go read all about Decians good day right here

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