The good, the kind and the friendly

This week’s blog is something of an anti-rant.

It was my sons 5^th birthday this week. Cue the usual parental things to make it as nice as day as possible (presents, cake etc). We certainly helped make it a cheerful day, but it was taken to another level by unlikely heroes. It was the kindness of two complete strangers towards a boy that they will in all likelihood never see again that made him almost burst with happiness.

At a time of massive austerity, when we have MP’s cheering as hundreds of thousand of people’s lives are flushed down the toilet, unions gearing up for crippling strikes and probable civil unrest on the streets is imminent, it’s important to look for those chinks of light. Those people who through their actions make you remember that what we see on the news every day is a tiny slice of misery in comparison to the goodness that goes on in our neighbourhoods and on our streets every day of the week.

So a massive thank you to the train driver who let a boy on his birthday switch the train engine on, beep the horn and turn on the windscreen wipers on his train from Temple Meads.

Also huge credit to the builder who, when my son told him he wanted to follow in his footsteps when he grows up (well you’ve got to have a trade), ran off and bought him a proper builders trowel back to take away as a present.

OK, a couple of five minute conversations aren’t going to change anyone’s life. Nice, but so what? Well, it made me think. If it’s that easy to touch someone’s life in such a positive way, why aren’t we all doing it? Maybe most of you are.

So here’s what I would like. I’d like to hear about the good things you do for people. The old woman who lives on her own that you do shopping for, the schoolchild you help with their reading or the homeless man that you take soup to.

I want to know so I can show people that we are intrinsically good and not the bitter, empty, miserable people that we are portrayed as through the TV every night (Eastenders I’m looking at you). That politicians that are labelling us as a drain on the state are wrong. They are looking in the wrong direction and missing the pure human decency that surrounds them. They look at the worst of us and try to tar everyone with the same brush.

I’d like to be a champion of the good, of the kind, of the caring. Each blog, I will try and include some of your kindness to inspire others. If you want to avoid feeling bigheaded, do it anonymously. Tell me how it made you feel as well.

Also, let me know if you have a cause that needs help. I’ll be happy to try and point people in your direction.

These are big ideas for a man with a blog read by a hundred people or so but what I saw in my son’s eyes was the real result of kindness.

Happiness.

Something we could all do with a little more of…..