It was no ordinary assignment handed to students at Bakersfield College in California. That is, it was so ordinary in its obvious simplicity and inspiration that it was out of the ordinary.
Like so many of us, Chuck Wall-an instructor in human relations-was overwhelmed by daily examples of the evil that people inflict on one another, often for no apparent reason. He could not abide another incantation on another newscast of “another random act of senseless violence.”
Unlike many of us, he did not permit himself to be desensitized by a society that seemed in breakdown. Rather, he undertook to tip the balance another way, commanding his students to venture into “random acts of senseless kindness,” and write about it.
They responded with an enthusiasm that would have converted Ebenezer Scrooge-donating Salvation Army blankets to homeless people under a bridge, buying a snack for a father and son adrift, even yielding a parking space on a crowded street.
The cause, it is cheering to note, became contagious, with churches, schools and professional associations joining in. Hundreds of bumper stickers proclaiming the message have been sold, including for the entire local sheriff’s department.
The idea isn’t entirely original. A broader version, in what seems to have been kind of an underground movement, has been afoot for the past few years: “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty.” And isn’t that a lovely thought?
Plant a flower, plant a tree, make a tiny piece of the world prettier for it. Offer a kind word, donate a selfless deed to someone down on luck, and change, if even for a moment, a life. It costs little or nothing; it requires little time or effort. But small gestures can make large differences, and collectively-like the drops of water in an ocean-can be a mighty force.
More than anything in our complex society, our problem today is that we are disconnected-from each other, from the problems that divide us, from the ugliness that threatens order. There is no easy solution, but to begin, practice making a difference.
