Today is Random Act of Kindness Day. I personally think this is a great idea for a holiday. Too many people are too self-involved to care, or even notice the struggles of people around them. I was waiting while some people were getting off the train the other day, and there was a big crowd of people around the doors as usual. An elderly lady was really struggling to get off the train, as it was quite a high train and there was about a foot gap to the platform, and everyone just watched. I pushed my way to the front of the scrum so I could hold her bags and give her my arm to steady herself after a few seconds, when I realised that none of the other thirty people closer to her and staring directly at her as she endeavoured to bridge the gap were going to help at all. There are not enough random acts of kindness in the world today, and often what is only a small thing to you can be a big help to another.
A blog ran throughout 2012 dedicated to this very theme, with a new father committing to do one random act of kindness every day for an entire year and then donate the money raised by his blog to charity on the 366th day. Sadly, this blog concluded on the first day of 2013, but it can still be found here, and I would thoroughly recommend taking a look, as it makes for good uplifting reading. There is also a organisation dedicated to spreading kindness that can be found here. The idea was also brought to the big screen by director Mimi Leder with the film Pay It Forward; the idea behind this being that instead of paying back a favour that someone has done for you, you pay it forward instead. This is an excellent concept and it is actually a really good film, you should watch it if you haven't already.
I've searched high and low on the internet for some of the best random acts of kindness I could find in honour of this holiday, and I present them here as examples to us all;
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