Acts of Kindness

Today at work, we got hit with a rush at 9:45, something that rarely ever happens after 8.

A Mexican family wanted about 10 pounds of beef tenderloin cut up into cubes, another dude wanted four pieces of Buffalo tenderloin (something we had to get a new cut of and trim right then and there, which took a good 5-6 minutes), and then there was one guy who just wanted italian sausage for a pizza.

I was the one helping that last guy. He asked me if our pork Italian sausage had any Fennel or Anise in it. Having no idea what either of those two things are, I went to go check the box they came in. It said that it had neither Fennel or Anise in the pork, but the chicken Italian sausage had both. I'm not going to say he was downtrodden and dejected by not being able to get pork sausage, but I felt he was kind of disappointed. I gave him two chicken sausages and he left.

But before he did, I noticed in the bottom left hand corner of the touch screen we use on our scales there was an ingredient panel. I thought it might have been just something for the chicken Italian sausage, but as he was walking away, I went ahead and checked the pork sausage ingredients as well. Sure enough, the first thing was fennel.

Thinking he was already too far away, I went into the back and started sweeping the floors.

Here's the thing. Yesterday, working on 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I was walking to my car after school and I saw some random guy drop something out of his back pocket. I wanted to say something to him, but for some reason I didn't. As the guy went off to his car, I spent the remainder of the walk regretting not telling him he dropped it.

I felt really guilty, actually. What if it was something this guy had spent hours writing for his girlfriend? What if it was a paper he aced and was bringing home to show his parents? It wouldn't be a suicide-worthy thing if he'd lost something like that, but he could have that little tinge of disappointment that we've all felt when we're proud of something and then we lose it before we can share it. What if it was some transcript for college that would decide whether or not he made it into the college of his choice? He could spend the rest of his life in Plano working crappy jobs because he dropped that piece of paper and I didn't tell him.

So back to the meat market. I sat there, remembering yesterday, and thought about it for a few seconds. Then I dropped the squeegee, ran out and wrapped up two pork Italian sausages, and ran to the front of the store where the guy was about to check out.

When I gave it to him and explained the mistake, he said "Thank you. Really, thank you. This is why we shop here".

That's not just Market Street propoganda either. I did something I really didn't have to, and he was really, really appreciative of it. It felt good, really good. Minutes earlier I'd been in a situation where I was reminded why it's a bad idea to talk about politics with friends which frustrated me beyond belief, but when he told me thank you like that, I felt like I'd made his night a little bit better and in doing so, did the same to mine.

Just two minutes out of my life for someone else randomly, and it was one of the more rewarding experiences in my past few weeks.