The other day, we went to Donegal town to get supplies for the Christmas Eve slow cooker lasagna and some other groceries. It was a fairly dark day, which meant that the Christmas lights were on in the various towns and villages we traveled through on our way there and back. It made for quite a pleasant journey.
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| Donegal town at 12:30 pm on a rainy December day |
In one of the villages, a guy was waiting at the bus stop. He was an older gent, of an age where he would qualify for the free travel pass given to all Irish people when they turn 66. He didn't have one, though. He also didn't have cash and tried to pay his fare with a card, which the driver has no way to accept. The result of the brief conversation was that the guy sat down and rode into Donegal town without paying. When we arrived, he told the driver he'd be right back with some cash. In a few minutes, he returned and the driver drove off to begin his break. It was kind of him to trust the guy and allow him to ride into town. Clearly he is not a regular because he didn't know he needed cash. Since he didn't have a travel pass, he may have been a visitor. He wasn't on the return trip.
I've noticed the kindness of bus drivers through the years we've been here--and we've ridden a lot of buses! A few years ago, when we lived in a different village and rode a different bus, we were on the Local Link waiting to go home from Dungloe. The bus picked us up at Aldi and Joe, the driver, asked if we were in a hurry. Of course we weren't, because there was a 20 minute gap between the Aldi pick-up time and the Main St departure time anyway. He said he was going to look for some passengers he was expecting to be there. He didn't find them. He drove down the street to Lidl. He didn't find them. We went to Main St to the regular stop. They didn't appear. We left for the trip home. Instead of turning down the usual road, he went back down towards the cluster of grocery stores. As we passed Aldi, I saw a group of people standing outside with a very full trolley, waving. 'There they are!' I said. He turned around and drove into the car park. They loaded their groceries into the bus and off we went. When we got to Bunbeg, Joe stopped and waited a few minutes so a guy in the group could get what he needed in the pharmacy. No one grumbled or was impatient. The family was from Tory Island and if they'd missed the bus, they would've missed their ferry home. We were all glad to wait for them to do what they needed to do on the 'mainland' and head home with their supplies.
These are small acts of kindness, but in these times when people seem to revel in ugliness and nastiness, I think it's important to notice kindness when it shows up.
3 comments:
If I am not mistaken it was a Canadian woman from around Gananoque or Kingston - somewhere down there - who initiated the concept of performing a random act of kindness every day. I do this. I think I did it before and I didn’t need it codified but it reminded me just how important it is. It doesn’t have to be anything grand. Something as simple as holding the door for someone or saying a cheery “hello” to a homeless person. In restaurants where you can pay forward a meal for someone who can’t afford it, I do it. As you point out, the world is filled with g
…..greed and ugliness and anything we can do to soften the edges of daily life is worth it.
Yes. You never know what someone is going through or how much a kind word or deed can mean to someone.
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