Sunday, November 28, 2010

WEEK 13

My son see’s me hold the door for people. At first I didn’t even realize I did it, it become a habit. At six years old he uses his entire mite to hold a door for anyone, even if they are 20 feet away. He enjoys the compliments he gets from the (usually) older adults on how well mannered and nice he is.

*****

Every year after we shop and visit Santa at the mall we head to Dick’s Sporting Goods to check out the tree. It has hundreds of tags littering it. Ages of children and what they wish for Christmas. We always chose two, most of the time a boy and a girl, but this year Riley wanted to pick two boys. They both wanted a simple fishing pole. Something that we take for granted and have many of. We picked them out and paid then headed out of the store as I re-explained to him about the poverty stricken families, how some of them couldn’t afford presents for their children and how we should help out when we can.

*****

My Mom worked at the local nursing home, so the guy we saw in the wheel chair in the street she knew. Since he was holding up lines of traffic my Mom stopped to help the confused man wheel the rest of the way across the intersection. The line of traffic tooted and yelled to my Mom for doing such a good deed. My son was there to witness this and thinks my Mom’s a hero, since in his little head he would have gotten run over if she wouldn’t have helped him. :)

*****

At Wal-Mart, Target, Rite-Aid and many other stores around my area the cashier usually asks for a dollar donation for the Children’s Miracle Network, Toys for Tots and other organizations. Of course I always accept. On average I spend 150 bucks at one of these stores without batting an eye. What’s one dollar? Riley hasn’t gotten the concept of this yet, but he will. He thinks I give the money to the cashier. :)

*****

We drove through Dunkin Donuts drive-thru one day and got a few drinks. The cashier didn’t charge us any money. Apparently the person in front of us had given her a 20 and said pay for the people behind me, and if there’s change keep it going. This stunned me for a moment, but it was an amazing gesture. I was glad Riley was there to witness this also.

*****

I saw a man drop a 20 dollar bill and handed it to him after his transaction was complete. He thanked me multiple times and headed out the door. My son saw this, and now every time someone loses something, even a penny, he taps them and hands them their change with a smile.

*****

I want my son to be respectful and helpful even if it something simple like holding a door for someone. It’s one of the qualities that I think is most important and will stick with him for the rest of his life. Hopefully, it will become routine for him to help others. “Pay it Forward”, is a term I use a lot when I explain about helping others. Maybe someday when they get a chance they will help others too.

1 comment:

  1. This handles week 13 very smoothly. I always worry about clumsiness and obviousness in week 13, but this sidesteps both problems very neatly. Multiple examples like this adding texture and richness to the piece and somehow avoid preachiness....

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