Friday, February 26, 2010

Orange you glad you know me?

OK, that was lame.

A few things.

First of all... I don't feel much like talking about any of this, or doing anything productive, or being a contributing member of society in any meaningful way right now. I'm a little bit obsessively following the story of one Layla Grace, a 2-year-old who is on death's doorstep with cancer. I've only been following her story for the last two or three days. So let me say, I cannot explain to you why it has me so emotional. I've been crying on and off for the last two days for this child. Here I go again... but just the thought of the pain that mother feels... and to read how strong she seems in all her writings... I just feel sick. Also, it's probably PMS. But really, I feel sick with sadness. It's heartbreaking.

You can become a sad and obsessed follower of this story yourself by reading her blog at www.laylagrace.org or her twitter feed at @laylagrace.

There's no good way to transition from that talk about real life and death matters to what's going to follow: a story about an orange.

It's not even a very compelling story. But here goes.

Thursday was Random Act of Kindness Day. I had no idea what I was going to do. But in the morning, I went and had my finger-prints taken for the Detroit Reading Corps. The parking lot at the building was the kind with a gate, a ticket and a bored attendant. I struck me as I was pulling in: when I left, I could pay for the car behind me! But then when the time came, a) I didn't know how much that would be, as the price depends on how long you stayed, and b) I was slightly concerned that the booth attendant would just keep the money since there was no car actually behind me in line.

I know. I'm judgmental.

But I never had the chance anyways. Right off the bat, she tells me that they won't take $20 bills, which was all I had. In fact, I'd just gone to the ATM in the building and paid a $3 fee to take that money out after seeing a sign on the way in stating they also don't take credit or debit. It said nothing about $20s. My only solution was to re-park and go back inside to buy something so I'd have smaller bills.

Let me say, I did not look at this like, oh, YIPPEE, just what I wanted to do when this whole process has already taken way longer than I'd planned! No. I was just a tad more grumpy with that, thinking things like, "Really, parking lot booth, you don't take 20s? Or debit cards. REALLY?"

But then I realized that maybe this was my chance. I went into the little deli/convenience store and grabbed an orange. At that point, I wanted it for myself. I usually eat one at work each day, but I'd forgotten to bring one. But on my way out I felt like I was supposed to offer it to the attendant.

Here's what I thought as I drove up: She's going to think I'm crazy. She's going to think I'm pitying her, that I think she is a poor single teenage mother on welfare who needs a free handout. She is going to think I poisoned the orange.

Aren't our brains stupid?

So what happened? I said in a totally-I'm-not-pitying-you way, "Would you like an orange?" To which she said, "Sure. Thank you." She took the orange, set it down, and then said, "Would you like a receipt?"  I waited for it, and then the gate rose, and she finally made eye-contact with me and smiled just the teensy-tiniest smile. Her lips barely moved. But I saw it as she said, "Have a nice day."

Anyway, I know it's kind of lame. An orange. What kind of act of kindness is that? Probably true. It didn't feel like much.

I hope it felt like a little bit more than that to her.

3 comments:

  1. I told Bill last night that I feel like a stalker on Layla's page. It's so upsetting to me, but I feel like i need to follow her journey too.

    And if I had been that attendant, I would've said "no," but only because i hate oranges...it's a texture thing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dude, I can't STOP. I freaking cried myself to sleep last night over Layla. It's soooo heartbreaking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for visiting my blog! I'm enjoying yours, right now. Love what you did with your orange.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails