CREEDE HINSHAW: Pass forward acts of kindness

Instead of grumbling about bad service real or imagined in 2017 I want to (1) be more appreciative of ordinary kindness and (2) be a person who regularly practices ordinary kindness. So here are two simple acts of kindness bestowed on me within the past week:

POSTAL CLERK GETS CREATIVE: Because I’m a cheapskate I have a desk drawer full of carefully opened, used mailers in various states of decrepitude saved for re-use. Last week I used one of them to mail a gift to my sister. With some tape and staples I created an envelope almost as good as new.

Proud of my resourcefulness I drove to the main post office and smugly passed my creation across the counter. The clerk told me that standard shipping to California (if I remember correctly) would cost $9.

But then she added, “You can mail the same package with the same delivery time for $6 if you use one of our packages.” I was stunned for two reasons: first, I wasn’t as clever as I fancied myself to be and second, that the clerk voluntarily proposed a helpful plan that caused her extra time and saved me money.

I assumed she would return my package with the new box and tell me to return when I’d fixed things. Instead she pulled out the new mailer, stuffed my envelope inside it, asked me to re-address it at the counter and saved me $3.

People often complain about public servants. Sometimes it is warranted, but many times it’s self-righteous and self-serving. I’m not the only person who is greeted courteously and helped professionally by public servants. It would have been easier for her to charge me the $9. I was already reaching for my credit card. We should tell the good stories.

RESTAURANT MANAGER GRANTS WEIRD REQUEST: My wife has had a tenacious cold and cough this season, made worse because I’ve had to prepare the meals, mostly the take-out options from local restaurants. One night, she asked for grilled vegetables and a soft tortilla. Not a tortilla filled with anything, just a tortilla.

So I went to this local restaurant that sold wraps and warned them, “I’m getting ready to make a request you’ve probably never heard.”

I was right. The persons on duty asked me to repeat my request three times. I felt foolish. After all, what idiot customer orders an unfilled tortilla? I told them I would pay for the tortilla. I didn’t want it for free.

After first suggesting another restaurant, the manager then disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared with a huge tortilla, refusing all offers to pay since the computer wasn’t smart enough to ring up a lonely tortilla. When I insisted on paying she pointed to a collection jar for disadvantaged children and said, “Put your money there.” I did. But I’ll soon return to buy something the computer can ring up.

Undoubtedly, you have been a recipient of unmerited kindness this year. Pass it on.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].