Tis the Season?

While having a coffee in a café near my home, I overheard a conversation between two young women in their late teens or early twenties that really disappointed me. One was explaining to the other how it was important for her to “act extra grateful” this time of year because her parents took the holidays very seriously. Both were well dressed and carried the usual accessories that signaled having a healthy budget for such things, but the volume with which they spoke and the subject matter really became somewhat of a spectacle for the entire coffee shop. In hindsight, I don’t believe either of them once clued into the fact that they had become such a show.

“We always take pictures doing some kind of volunteer work but it sucks. It’s such a waste of time,” one said to the other. I was compelled to approach and applaud them for volunteering their time with the hopes of giving their actions a degree of validation; something to be proud of rather than degrading their display of altruism as being a “waste of time,” but I held back. I began to question whether or not she was even telling the truth or just saying that she volunteered for show. All in all, it was none of my business. I was just a happenstance eavesdropper but I wondered what the example was that these women followed and if there were younger girls following their example.

From the moment I laid eyes upon them, I immediately drew comparisons between them and a certain reality show franchise family. If her claim of having participated in doing said volunteer work was true, it was admittedly not by choice. She and her family were compelled to project a certain image, as I’m sure many families do during the holidays, letting their good deeds serve as nothing more than good public relations.

There are many who would ask these girls to not bother at all simply because their motives for helping others are not for the purpose of helping others, but rather completely self serving. But I disagree. Whatever the motive may be, helping is helping.  If they feel that they need to volunteer and take photographic evidence to prove to their friends and colleagues that they are, indeed, caring people, then so be it. I would, however, encourage them and everyone else to not identify what you are grateful for solely during the holidays, nor limiting those corresponding expressions of gratitude exclusively through some means during the giving season, but to express gratitude and spread kindness year round.

With every sunrise we are given the opportunity to do what ever it is we so chose. Granted, there is the mundane rank and file that most of us fall into, but in truth, we make the decision to fall in line from day to day. This is our choice. For that choice, I am grateful.

The holidays are a wonderful time to relax, spend time with family, etc. But can you imagine what this world would be like if everyone took three minutes out of every day to deliberately bestow upon someone else an act of kindness? Unfortunately, I would assume that the young women in the café are, at this stage in their lives, too self absorbed to make a concerted effort to help someone else of their own free will for three minutes out of every day, but perhaps life will one day open their eyes to see the world beyond their sunglasses. There is beauty to be experienced at all levels and most things to be grateful for do not come with a price tag nor need to be proven to anyone.