I’ve got tulips on my brain from my last post. So, imagine my surprise as I was catching up on some podcasts, I heard a delightful story that caught my ear about the bulbs. Stewart McLean of the Vinyl Cafe was giving out his annual “Arthur” awards. The Arthur awards don’t have any monetary value, though apparently they can get you into a free Vinyl Cafe concert (which seems like a sweet deal). The Arthurs are a public way for Canadians to hear about the small, ordinary, unimportant things that neighbors and friends help each other. The small unimportant things are important, Stewart says. I agree.
Judy of Godrich, Ontario nominated her neighbor Wendy for her kindness. Judy had just torn up her front lawn and planted a few hostas and other greenery in fall 2008, but was nowhere near done, when her healthy brother died very suddenly. The garden was forgotten as she plunged into grieving. Six months later, as spring came, she was delighted to find tulips spring up all over the yard. She counted them…tulips from 57 bulbs…the same age as her brother. She found out on her birthday where the tulips came from when Wendy’s card said: “Enjoy the tulips and your brother’s memory for years to come”. Wendy says that she knows what it is like to have a close family member die, and understands how important the little things are in remembering. Judy says:
Whenever you see tulips in the spring, it’s such a sign of hope…it was exciting to watch them come up day by day…I was enjoying them even not knowing where they came from…when I got the card I cried…it was a story [my brother] would have loved.
The stories went on. Stories of ordinary folks making a difference in the lives of others, “because it was the right thing to do” says Johnathon. Johnathon is a butcher who took an employee into his 2 bedroom apartment with his wife and 2 preschoolers, after the employee was imprisoned. Rather than firing him, he convinced the police to let him brought the fellow home, saying:
More than anything, he needs to know the people around him actually cared about him, and he wasn’t just someone who worked for me, but someone we actually cared about. I think that was someone new to him in his in his life….It worked out great…it wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do. I’ve had people help me out in tough times in my life, and it comes around. I didn’t think it was anything to win an award over. It was just the right thing to do…he’s gone from a kid to a man.
Stewart then talked to Carmel, a 19 year old clearly not used to talking on the radio. The giggly university student, with a wisdom that belied her years, talked about how she led a project that had elaborate gift packages prepared for the homeless on Vancouver’s East Side last Christmas. Others got involved, church groups baked, choirs had fundraisers and so on. When Stewart McLean asked her why she did this, she related her experiences being friends with classmates in the area and said:
I feel that with what I’ve been given in my life and what I’ve learned, I have a responsibility to give that back, and more than that I really do want to do as much as I can because I’ve been given the tools in my life so far to give something back. I know that if I was there [homeless], they would find some way of helping me and giving me a hand. So heck, I’ll do it in a turn. Absolutely. Absolutely.
So, I’d like to give out my own Arthurs here to a smattering of people who come immediately to mind:
- the garden fairies who raked the leaves last fall in my yard. Somebody knew I couldn’t do it and you did it for me.
- the recycling fairy (actually, he was a guy pulling a hauling trailer that was half full of orange bags already) who was driving around the neighborhood picking up bags of leaves and talking them to the recycling depot for those of us who didn’t have a way to get them there. We saw him from the window, stopping at each house that had orange bags.
- Frank, at Midas…he’s found ways to give me parts on sale, knock down labor costs in an effort to get the costs of a car repair down to something manageable during years when the real cost was unmanageable. He is compassion in greasy coveralls.
- last week, just prior to delivering an exam at the school, the course coordinator and I grabbed a quick tea from the university cafeteria.
I followed her as I went to go pay for my tea, and the cafe worker said:
It’s been paid for. Thanks, M. It was a thoughtful treat on a busy
day in a busy week. - yesterday, I spent some time with a friend who is struggling and not doing well. She made a point of seeking me out later and thanking me for something very specific that had happened during our time together that was meaningful for her. The way she said it, brought tears to my eyes because of how she affirmed me. Did she know, even amongst her pain and difficulties, how much her words meant to me?
I could go on and on.
Many of the little things we do for others don’t even get a “thank you”, much less get an “Arthur”, aknowledging their significance on national radio. But these little things make a tough day do-able, inspire people to “pay it forward” with acts of kindness towards others. They put bright spots in people’s lives, putting a sparkle in the eye, some color to the cheeks, some spring in one’s step.
Save the below link for a lousy day when you need a smile. Sometime when you’ve lost your zing, feel like the world is hopeless, and you feel like giving up, when it all seems like it’s not worth it, listen to the Arthur awards show:
At the end of this broadcast, Stewart tells Carmel that he is “giving her the microphone” and invites her to say anything she wants. She says:
Everybody has been given something. And if you can find what that is, and if you can find the venue to channel that and to give that back…I mean, all you need to do is just really walk out your front door, and you’ll find somebody that might need what you have. I would just encourage people to do that–you can take that risk. It will be amazing what happens after that…thanx for the microphone. (giggle) I’ve been wanting to say that forever!!
The small unimportant things are, indeed, the important things.
Write a Comment