What is the greatest act of kindness you have done?

gave a car to my neighbor after his house blew up….

I stole 3 bottles of Vicodin from my friends bathroom so she wouldn’t kill herself while we slept over, thank you Mr. Toilet. She’s still here and doesn’t know I did it, but thanked all of us years later.

I never told in case she decided to tell fewer people about her problems. It worked. :)

I hired a kid off the street who had good “spirit”. He was assembling aircraft parts at the time. I spent nights and weekends and taught him linux, mysql, perl, bash etc etc and now he is a rocking sysadmin. Go progress!

When I was maybe 16 going home from school we found an infant crying alone in a car with windows up, this was a sunny day in the summer and it was more than 32C outside. Some of us wanted to just leave it be while me and someone else decided to report it.

Cops/firefighters came, had to break the window to extract the child and the mom arrived about 45 mins. later after all of this, we didn’t know how long she was gone before we got there.

Also this morning the barista who was clearly in training forgot the vanilla shot in my latte but looked really stressed and had a big lineup so I let it go on a $4 coffee! You’re welcome barista. You’re welcome.

Wow, these are all amazing.

@artificialard – On behalf of all baristas everywhere, I thank you.

I pulled a few all-nighters to help an online friend who was considering suicide. I’m not sure if I helped, or if that person even truly needed help (he may have been lying to me about the whole situation), but it was what I felt I had to do.

i took care of my nieghbor until he passed away last year. took him to hosp, dr appts, he spent holidays with us – he had no family. found a good nursing home for him for rehab, but sadly diabetes took his life. i promised him I’d take care of his dog forever. She’s laying on my feet right now.

quickly gathered a couple other people to lift the rear end of a car off a girl who was hit and pinned under the car. The police were standing around trying to figure out what to do. I gathered a couple other women, we lifted the car by hand, held it up , and shifted it a bit so the child could be released and treated.

Wow, cdwcrrn!!
That girl was lucky you were there.

My deeds have not been quite so heroic, but I do try to do good deeds everytime the opportunity presents itself.

It’s kind of sad that my proudest moment was in the late 1960’s when I was in grade school. My town was pretty white. Our school had the first black kid and tension was everywhere. Everyone was talking about it, and actually, everyone was afraid. On his first day in the lunchroom you could hear the buzz. Usually the boys sat on one side of the table and the girls sat on the other. He was one of the first kids in the lunch line that day. As I stood in line I noticed that no one was sitting on his side of the long table. As the lunch room got fuller I was moved to sadness. I was the misfit of the school. My mother worked and my dad was dieing of emphysema and rarely had the ability or energy to make sure I dressed appropriately for school. I knew what it felt like to be shunned.
When I finally got my food I determined to conquer my fear of being teased by the others, 1. for sitting on the boys side, and 2 for sitting with a black child. I went over and sat down next to him. We ate lunch in silence that day, but both of us knew that neither of us were alone.

@Judi: You’re kind of awesome. :)

judi,
You gave that child a precious gift. Awesome! Thank you.

I am more ashamed of the opportunities for bravery that I have since avoided, but I try. That moment probably more than any other may has defined my concept of morality.

@Judi: Often the younger you are, the braver. Unfortunate, since the older you get the more you can effect change.

Anyone ever see the movie “Pay It Forward?” It stars Kevin Spacey. A great movie. Sad, but excellent. I totally beleive in karma; what goes around comes around. I try to do that as often as I can; if only to give someone some change if they’re short at the register at the store. If someone does something for you; pay it forward.

@Judi When you’re a child and the entire universe is that lunchroom, it’s an incredible kindness to buck the trend for a greater good.