Honea Express

Archive for the ‘kindness’ Category

The previous post and this one started as one and the same, but as I wrote I realized that there was no way to segue my attempts at humor into what follows. It didn’t feel right.

Dan has some friends, Neil and Rachel, and they have faced a nightmare that no parent should ever face. In April of 2005 their son, three year old Joseph, died suddenly in his sleep.

Neil and Rachel have set up a charity, the Joseph Salmon Trust, which, to quote Dan, “supports parents who have lost a child by providing financial assistance to those who need it most. This may be to help with funeral costs or to allow the self-employed a break from work while they come to terms with their loss. Grieving families have enough to deal with without worries about where they will find the money to say goodbye to their child or pay the next electricity bill. Nothing we can do can make their situation better, but we can do something to stop it getting worse.”

Dan is doing something for the fund. He, and a group of merry men, will be walking 78 miles in six days to raise money. It is a touching tribute by a thoughtful man. They are accepting donations of any amount.

Please, visit Dan at his blog, or read more about the walk at this one.

There are many good causes in the world and I know that times are tight, but this, my friends, is something worthwhile. This is for the love of a little boy gone and the parents that remain.

It is to help those parents that have nightmares ahead.

The list of groceries was long. There had been a coin flip and I’m not sure whether I had won or lost, but I was in the market, alone, and my wife was home with the boys. It was 6 of one and half-dozen of the other.

It was Sunday and the football games were over. The store was filling up with shoppers that had put the day off until evening. I was one of them.

My basket was full. The lines were long. I picked the shortest and was followed quickly by a woman with two items, a bag of chips and a pie heavy with meringue. I told her to go before me. We stood there, her waiting with her two items and me with my many. I glanced behind me and there was another woman with a small handful of items. I felt like replenishing my karma and told her that she too could go ahead of me.

The conveyor belt moved and soon the three of us were sharing counter space. I quietly unloaded my goods and suddenly realized that the orange juice in my hand was not the orange juice that I intended to buy. It was not fortified with calcium and vitamins. There was not a smiling face on the jug. I spoke in the direction of the two women and asked if they could watch my basket for a moment while I exchanged the juice. They smiled and nodded and I ran like Barry Sanders through aisles of defense. No one could touch me.

When I returned, impressively fast considering the distance, the two ladies were mid-way through the unloading of my basket. They had taken it upon themselves to place my items on the belt behind their own. They were kind and I liked it, despite the rapid drain of my karma reserve.

I thanked them. They smiled. We went on with our lives. I pushed my cart out into the cold night air and thought, thank God this wasn’t the night that I bought the condoms.

That would have been awkward for everyone.