This morning, after an on-going battle with my work computer, I decided it was time to go to Tim Horton's for a tea to help calm myself down. I waited in the drive thru line, like I do every day, and found myself staring at the burgundy Toyota 4 Runner in front of me with the funny sounding license plate (it spelled pee). When I finally got to the window to pay for my tea, the Tim Hortons clerk informed me that the lady in front of me, in the pee Toyota, had bought my tea for me. I was flabbergasted. I've heard of this happening before, a sort of pay it forward movement, but never had it happened to me. I felt a plethora of emotions which ranged from joy to a restored faith in the human race.
You see, with the Christmas season upon us, I have noticed even more the self-centered behaviour of people out and about shopping. People who steel the parking spot you've been waiting to get in, people who refuse to yield to you even if you have the right of way, I even had one woman in a mini-van, who had blocked my exit, give me a dirty look, when there were 12 other exits she could have come in. I drive a large vehicle, it doesn't turn on a dime! So just when I was starting to loose faith in the human race all together, just when I began to hope that Nostradamus' (incidentally, I just spelled Nostradamus wrong, but my spellchecker corrected it. That seems odd that my Mac spellchecker would know Nostradamus.) end of the world prediction was accurate (not really, for god's sake, I don't want to die in Texas), someone came along and renewed my faith in people.
And now, with the weight of this renewal on my shoulders, as the Beach Boys would say, I must keep the good vibrations going. So tomorrow I will buy someone's coffee, and with any luck, in turn, they will buy someone else a coffee and so on and so on. It's a small gesture, but it has ripple effect potential, and even if for only the faintest moment, we find ourselves feeling a little closer to our fellow man, we will all be better for it. Now, I only hope the person I buy coffee for tomorrow isn't on a breakfast run for a construction crew.
Cheers,
