A Little Kindness

"No good deed goes unpunished."

That is the mentality that many of us have these days. There is division in our country, in our families, in our ideologies, and the list goes on and on. It is a virus that spreads and eats away at our souls, at our happiness, and at our peace. Thinking only of ourselves and of others only in how they relate to us builds walls between us that isolate me from you, you from him, him from her, etc.

I am grateful to be able to share an experience that realigned my perspective:

While my mother, sister and I sat at the 4-top table in the cruise restaurant, the 2-top next to us was sat with a single gentleman. He introduced himself to the waiter by name and shook his hand when he did so. The waiter asked if he would have anyone joining him this evening. The gentleman replied that it would just be him tonight, as his planned companion had been caught up with other plans. I couldn't help but overhear all of this because our tables are probably no more than 12-18 inches apart from one another.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you are dining alone this evening. Would you like to join us for dinner?" I asked.

"Oh, that would be great. Are you sure? I don't want to impose," he replied politely.

I insisted that we would love to have him join us. So, he picked up his glass and silverware and came around to take our fourth seat. The waiter took note immediately and simply continued service with us as one group. We very much enjoyed the conversations we shared, finding both similarities and minute differences intriguing. It wasn't until we were well into our conversation that he asked us if we had seen the Footloose production on the ship. We replied that we had not only seen it, but enjoyed it thoroughly. He asked us if we had recognized him. We shook our heads questioningly. He then changed his accent from its natural Scottish tone to an American drawl and asked if that would have jogged our memory.

It turned out that he happened to be one of the primary actors in the cruise production of Footloose. We didn't know it while we were dining with him because his character was very different than he was. In fact, he used the American drawl for his character on stage while his natural voice has a distinct Scottish inflection.
It was fascinating to hear how he trained for the play, how life was for him as an employee on the ship, and what kinds of experiences had brought him to be working on the ship. He even was kind enough to give us some pointers on how to get the most out of our limited time on this particular cruise.

Sharing the time together was great and so, when he mentioned that he was also in the cruise's other production Elements, we made sure that our schedule opened up to go see it. When we did get to see him on stage after dining together, it felt like we were seeing a good friend rather than a random face. We enjoyed it immensely!

There are great joys to be found in opening ourselves up to other people. There are connections to be had that cannot come from prescribed experiences. Some bridges will only exist when we have the courage to step outside our comfort zone.

I am very grateful that this man joined our table, both literally and figuratively. His willingness to share his experience with us opened the door that allowed us to move from strangers to friends and the rare opportunity to see life from a wholly new perspective.

A little bit of kindness may indeed open us up to being hurt sometimes, but that same little bit of kindness also opens us up to joyful connections with friends we haven't met yet. I, for one, believe it is worth the risk.