“Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
—Scott Adams
I am amazed by how many times it happens.
I am at table at a restaurant and the server arrives to greet us. “Hello, I’m Amy. I’ll be your server this evening. How are you all?”
“We’re great, Amy,” my wife replies. “And how are you?”
“Oh, wow, thanks for asking,” Amy says. “I appreciate that. I’m doing great as well.”
Or I’m checking into a hotel at the front desk. “Hello, and welcome! How are you today?” says Deko, the receptionist.
“I’m good! Thank you,” I reply. “And how are you today, Deko?”
“Thank you for asking,” Deko says. “I’m doing good today, too!”
Or I’m in a convenience store buying a small item. “Hey there, how’s it going?” says Sam at the register.
“I’m good, Sam, thank you. How are you?” I reply.
“Hey, man, thanks for asking,” Sam says. “I’m getting by, you know.”
Short interactions of this nature happen to me regularly. In virtually every case, the employee serving me seems surprised that I’m asking how they are doing with sincerity. These common exchanges give me the impression that customers don’t normally inquire about the employee’s well-being, and that surprises me in return.
When I am being served or cared for by an employee, I try not to see a server or a clerk, but rather a person who I am meeting for the first time. I have never liked the term employee. I prefer the phrase “humans at work.” Of course, we all experience many quick transactional encounters, but really, they are human encounters. And in any society, there are lots of them.
Think about how many transactional encounters like these will happen across your lifetime—how many will happen across the globe in a single hour, a day, a year. What if we saw them as human encounters, and used them to spread awareness, connectivity, kindness, respect, and love?
Let me say right here that I have also come up short many times, particularly in my younger years. Something didn’t go right, and I would get mad or impatient. In almost every case, upon reflection, the problem was either caused by my lack of planning in the first place, or it was impacted by my own irritable or hurried mood. I often projected my internal condition onto the service provider with whom I was interacting. So, there’s my confession! These days I try hard to always convey respect and awareness of the human that is taking care of me.
Our lives are defined by our interactions with others. The people right in front of us are the ones we impact. If we all commit to acknowledging others and thereby increasing their self-worth, we can actually shift the paradigm of what a normal day on Earth feels like for others. Stack up enough of these small moments, and the trajectory of humanity can actually be nudged forward, and upward. Humanity advances one human at a time, starting with the person we’ve never met who is right in front of us.
