A small thing

I put as my status last night on Facebook & Twitter “Every once in awhile you get a reminder that you share the planet with some really awesome people.”

I think at a certain level we all know that, right? I personally have not encountered anyone who, in an hour of great need, did not have family or friends around to ease them through their crisis. I don’t mean a total bail out or solution to the situation, but just an in general show of support. Of standing tall with the person in need. Generally, we humans are pretty damn good about taking care of each other when tragedy occurs.

But what about the non crises days?

Sure, we sometimes talk about Paying it Forward. Or someone might start a movement for a Random Act of Kindness day. Or we honor people like Martin Luther King with days of service to our communities and neighbors. Those are all fantastic.

But what about the days in between?

Some people make it a part of their daily life to reach a hand out. People in positions to do that with some impact. Like the mayor of Newark, New Jersey Corey Booker. If you follow him on twitter you know he was out there shoveling snow (heck he probably still is since the weather just wont let up out there!) and taking requests and delivering supplies (including diapers to a woman stuck in her home with her baby). He’s an every day warrior of kindness!

But what about people who don’t have a platform (or may not want/need any spotlight on them)?

What about…say…your neighbors or maybe your trainers?

Two weeks ago while walking home, Sportsboy just about fell over when he saw what was sitting out in front of a house on our street: a bicycle. His size. A NICE one. Perfect for riding in triathlons for instance. It was suffering from neglect & some rust but was otherwise just what he needed in his quest to participate in more races & train with our workout group. The sign on the bike? FREE! He walked it home and later we brought it to Matt, who is part of Leg Up Training. Tanja runs the circuit classes that we’ve been taking & Matt specializes in bike training and he works on bikes too.  SB has wanted to join the bike group, but he didn’t have a suitable bike and I didn’t have the spare $$ just now. So this was perfect. Of course, after bringing it to Matt I’m thinking that I still have to pay since the bike does need some work. It would still be a great deal because he declared it a pretty damn good freebie pick up (I guess that when the bike was new it sold for a few hundred $). So last night after our normal circuit class, SB had his first bike class on his “new” bike. I could tell he had a blast (have I mentioned that the folks we work out with are pretty cool, especially to my kid?) and at the end I asked Matt how much I owed him for the work he had done. “Oh, nothing. I just had to clean it up.” C’mon Matt…your time…I know you normally charge for this…”Nah, forget it!”

So, thank you anonymous neighbor who chose to put your old bike out front for anyone to take rather than throwing it away or trying to sell it. And thank you Matt, for fixing it up as a favor rather than for money.

Those are small things, but they sure made my 14 year old happy and filled my heart.