RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS
Prompt - Random Act of Kindness : Write about a random act of kindness you've done for someone or someone has done for you, no matter how small or insignificant it may have seemed
Not long left now. I've known for nine months now, so there has been plenty of time to prepare myself for an end which, surely, is only days away. I manage the pain well enough to remain the right side of lucidity, so that I can still manage to write, as I have done every day now for many decades. The difference being that now there is only one subject I can deal with, in it's many variations. Death. Not long left now.
Will I see my life flash before me in the moment when it comes? I doubt it. So it's a sensible idea to look back on what has gone before in the days that lead up to that finality. In the past few days I have written about so many aspects of my life. Including the bad, but mostly the good. What use is there now in recalling the times when things went wrong, when I clashed with others? Far better to dwell on the happier moments, and fortunately there have been many.
The best of these have been with my family, and I've already covered how wonderful and enriching my relationships with my wife and children have been. I've looked back at the successes in my career, the satisfaction of knowing I contributed. I've been over all the joy I had from the arts, be it music or theatre or comedy or paintings or photography. And savoured the highlights from that long ago time when I played sport, and all the great sensations of joy to be had from watching sports where you can feel passionate about the results.
I've written about all of these, and more, but not that one brief moment which I still see as the greatest moment of my life. Which came at one of it's lowest moments. It has nothing to do with any of the above, it is an event I have rarely mentioned, and within the big picture of my life it would probably not be seen as anything of great significance by and observer looking in. They'd be wrong. For it provided the most special example of the one thing we all need in our lives more than any other.
Let me take you back fifty four years. I was twenty two years old, recently graduated, moved across the sea to Ireland, took up a job that I thought would be the beginning of my career. But which proved to be a false start. After less than six months I resigned before I was fired, and sank into a mire of self pity. Not wanting to admit to anyone back home the mess I had dropped into, I stayed on, no job, money running out fast. So fast that I soon had none left to pay my rent, or even to buy a plane ticket back. Walking along a damp city street with nowhere to go and one of my bags fell open, irreparably split. Belongings scattered across the pavement, people walked on by. Except one.
Brian he said his name was. I never found out any more about him. He saw the state of my bag, the state of me, and came to say hello, why didn't he give me a hand and help me get on my way, did I know where I was going? I watched as he stuffed my now filthy clothes back into the seemingly hopeless bag, took off the belt from his trousers, and used it to bind the bag back into some semblance of bagness.
"Now there, that'll do for now, won't it? I see by the look of you that times are not of the best for you right now. So here's what to do. Keep going along here now, take the second on the left, it's called Glassford Street, and go up it until you see a door with glass in it, and a kangaroo on the glass. Go in there, tell them Brian sent you and you'll be sorted. Bye then." And off he went, hands in pockets to maintain his dignity, and I never saw him again. I did call after him, but he ambled on, and by the time I'd got myself together he was out of sight.
I'd had no idea what I should be doing, or where I should be going, so I took up his suggestion. Maybe I'd be sorted. I found the marsupial, knocked, told them Brian sent me.
"Oh he did, did he? You'd best come in then."
I did, they fed me, they listened, they told me to go home, told me to face down my shame, gave me the air fare. They picked me up. As I left I said
"Please thank Brian for me. By the way, who is he?"
"We've no idea. Could be anyone."
But he wasn't anyone. Brian had given me something so much more important than all that practical assistance and advice. Hope.
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