Candy from strangers

[sabotabby]

As I was walking home, a fellow approached me. "Excuse me," he said.

"Yes?" Was this another mysterious person from my past? Or maybe someone I should have known from political circles but couldn't place. But no -- I was fairly certain I'd never met the guy before.

"I was wondering if I could do you a random act of kindness."

A little taken aback, I replied, "I guess that depends on what it is."

"I'd just like to give you something -- some chocolates, a candle, tea..."

Tea? He had my attention. "Really?"

"I noticed that you have a really great aura. It's good for the city -- we need more of that." And he handed me a gift bag filled with the aforementioned items, and a nice little teapot to top it off.

I introduced myself, still wondering whether I somehow knew him (I didn't) or whether there was a hidden camera or Bible tract coming up. There wasn't. I just had an extremely nice encounter with an exceptionally kind complete stranger.

There's no sarcastic punchline coming. It just made my day.

Comments

[pretzelsalt.livejournal.com]

That's fucking cool.

I hope that doesn't mean you are obligated to be nice to some random asshole now.

[sabotabby]

I'm not sure. How does karma work?

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

No he said she had a nice aura and the city needs more of that.

[sabotabby]

The unfortunate thing is that I'm really a bad person.

But I like chocolate and tea.

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

I don't believe you.

Proudly banned from:
[info]conservatism
[info]all4israel
[info]feminists4life
[info]illegals (sorta)
[info]anti_mapleleaf

People that think for themselves aren't bad.

[sabotabby]

It doesn't say there that I was banned from conservatism for suggesting that belt0033's chickenhawk rhetoric stemmed from feelings of inadequacy about his penis size, though.

(I take the fact that I was banned from there to mean that I was actually right about that.)

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

That's rather amusing. I need to get banned from some communities. Actually I seem to be banned from one of the more violent childfree communities, probably for suggesting that women need a man in order to reproduce.


"Honorable Mention:

[info]belt0033 for being [info]conservatism's previous maintainer and designing the community's old icon"

What can I say, I guess even (former) community mainainers can't always handle honest debate.

[sabotabby]

He was mod at the time; that was the first community I ever got banned from!

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

you so are not!

[ironed_orchid]

There's some new cult/phenomenon/thing where people perform random acts of kindness once a week. Can't remember what they'd called, it was on the radio.

[sabotabby]

Oh, I don't want him to have been in a cult! That'd take all the fun out of it.

I love your icon.

[ironed_orchid]

Well let us call it a phenomenon then. I wish I could remember what it was called. Basically this guy did some randomly nice and then decided he should do it more often and then he wrote something about it and other people decided to do random nice things. I think that's what happened.

But, of course, your guy could just be spontaneously doing random kind things and have no knowledge of the strange group behaviour of which I speak.

The icon has it's own origin story.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

I think the story was that the guy was doing some social experiment or something, and he just put this small ad saying "Join me!" and giving his number in some magazine. Just to see how many people would respond. And loads did. And then he decided he really ought to give them something to join rather than just saying "ha ha, fooled you". So he started this thing about doing a random act of kindness once a week. And the whole thing's grown massively since. I think it was supposed to be Fridays though, though it's possible that there's been a breakaway Tuesday sect of course ;) or the guy may have just been being randomly nice... randomly.

Very nice thing to happen, anyway.

[sabotabby]

Oh, that sounds quite reasonable and not cultish at all. I like that!

[cdaae.livejournal.com]

Wow, how nice, for once something to restore my faith in humanity! That would definitely cheer me up.

[sabotabby]

And then I got home and had marathon phone conversations.

*sigh*

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

oh dear.

*hugs* and tea.

I'm waiting for the phone to ring.

I suck at waiting.

[sabotabby]

Tell me about it.

You can have some of my phone calls. I had a certain person (who doesn't understand phone anxiety) wanting to talk to me for several hours, while other people called and left messages. Which I then had to answer.

I hate phones.

*hugs back*

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

Yay! Hugs!

I now have "approaching weekend and important conversation" anxiety, compounded by not knowing whether the third party in the discourse is

a) available for conversation
b) amenable to conversation
c) actively hostile
d) avoiding the questions entirely

Maybe I'll stay home and bury myself in textbooks.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

Wow, a little teapot!

It's a little teapot

[sabotabby]

Short and stout.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

You needed a teapot. Of course you still need a big teapot.

[sabotabby]

Indeed I do. Although I think one can just use a coffee carafe, no?

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

As long as the carafe is well scrubbed and free of lingering coffee aroma. I have a spare decent-sized teapot that you may have.

[yuki-yarrow.livejournal.com]

Just to be paranoid: check for drugs! :o ya.. never know? -__-;;;

[sabotabby]

My immediate thought was, "laced with cyanide." Then I was talking to my friend and he brought up the same concern.

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

If it's sealed then it's probably safe.

[syndicalist.livejournal.com]

No need to ask
He's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator

--Sade, "Smooth Operator"

[sabotabby]

Oddly enough, he didn't ask me for my number.

[teapolitik.livejournal.com]

I just love how the cynical comments outnumber the less cynical ones. Actually, I don't love that, it makes me sad.

But the random act of kindness makes me less sad.

[sabotabby]

I think it balances out the cynicism. Maybe tips the balance more towards non-cynical feelings.

[schramm.livejournal.com]

amazing.

[1in8.livejournal.com]

I also love the little tea pot. :D It's so cute!

[sabotabby]

I love tea, too. I've been trying to drink less coffee.

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

Wow!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

It's true. Your aura is really hott.

[sabotabby]

What colour is it? And is it showing?

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Neat! Unless, of course, all of that stuff is laced with XTC or acid or something.

Unless that's a plus for you.

[sabotabby]

Could be a good time. It'd take the wind out of my "no booze for a month" vow, though.

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's poisoned!

[sabotabby]

Wow, that'd really show me.

[ridemycamel.livejournal.com]

SWEET DEAL!

[swear-jar.livejournal.com]

Um. Wow. That's awesome! Makes me want to do something like that, for someone.

[sabotabby]

I suppose there's always the small chance of someone thinking that you're a total psycho. But I think the "Ummm...wow" reaction that I had is probably more common.

[fannishnonsense]

Wow, neat! That teapot is adorable.

[sabotabby]

So's your icon. Who is that?

[fannishnonsense]

That's Yumi from the J-Pop group Puffy AmiYumi. They're not very groundbreaking or anything, but they're tons of fun. If you want happy pop music you want Puffy AmiYumi!

[ridiculicious.livejournal.com]

He probably stole it.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

He stole from the rich, he gave to the poor, bla bla bla bla he had a heart and a heaaaad