The Dalai Lama describes compassion as intelligent selfishness.
Last week it was 37C (98.6F) in my hometown. I am in my office wear and waiting for the bus. A disabled person in his electronic wheelchair crosses the street at the red light next to the bus stop. As he turns down the street, I see something fall from the chair. It looked like a black envelope. A girl passes by and ignores the item so I figure it cant be important.
The seconds tick by. It is sweltering.
Finally curiosity overtakes me and I sprint across the road to see what it is. The black envelope turns out to be the disabled person's wallet. By this time, I can see my bus in the distance and the disabled person is about 200 metres in the opposite direction. Dammit !
I holler at the disabled man. He cant hear me. So, I sprint and finally catch up to him and hand back the wallet. He is simply stunned and repeatedly says thank you. I then sprint back and just manage to catch my bus in time.
I am one hot and nasty mess on the bus.
Totally agree that acts of kindness, random or otherwise are worthwhile. But do they have to be so hard ?!?