Scenes From Saturday

So, Saturday morning, as you already know if you read this post, I spent walking around downtown Baton Rouge taking pictures. When I returned to the street where I had parked the rental car, I was amused to find another gentleman across the street taking a picture of the same "Schlitz and Giggles" sign I had photographed a couple of hours earlier. Other than one man on a bicycle and a mother with her children (and of course the people at the State Capitol Building), I didn't really see any other people on foot until I spotted him. Apparently, downtown Baton Rouge is not a popular place on a Saturday morning.

Somehow, without my even planning it, Saturday turned out to be my "random acts of kindness" day.

On the way back to the hotel from downtown I stopped at CVS to pick up my prescription I had dropped off the night before. When I walked up to the pharmacy there was a middle-aged woman waiting at the counter. The clerk indicated I should come on up to pick up my order as the prescription for the woman waiting would not be ready for a few more minutes. I was swiping my debit card and entering my PIN, so I wasn't paying attention to the clerk as she rang up the 2 toiletry items I had with my prescription. As I looked up, she was holding a small plastic case that looked like (and turned out to be) one of those little repair kits for eyeglasses with the tiny screws and screwdriver and said, "I'll just put this in the prescription bag." I asked her what it was and she pulled it back out and I told her that was not mine. The woman who had been waiting said that it was hers and the clerk apologized and started to call a manager for approval to take it off my charge. I told the clerk, "Please don't bother" and took the case, handed it to the woman and said, "Here, my gift to you" and kind of chuckled. The woman's face lit up and she threw her arms around me exclaiming, "Thank you, that is so nice!" I told her it was my pleasure, then extricated myself from her grasp because I don't care to be touched by most people, especially strangers, and walked away with my items. I have no idea why that small act (it was a $3 item) caused such a more-than-necessary reaction from her, but apparently it made her happy. And it was certainly better than getting a "Screw you, I don't need your charity!" response, lol.


Later, when I returned to the hotel, there was a man taking a picture of his wife or girlfriend in front of the hotel under the sign. Assuming they were trying to have a keepsake photo of their trip to exciting(?) Baton Rouge I did something I seldom do and asked him if they'd like me to take their picture together. I was probably still in my "photography mode" from the photowalk, lol. Anyway, he said they would and thanked me very much afterward for taking a beautiful picture of them.

So, if an old curmudgeon like myself can practice random acts of kindness, you can too.

Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty

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